To Start Over Once Again
by ArcticRascal
Summary: Pearl vanished. That's all that Lapis knows, she doesn't know why or how Pearl disappeared and honestly she doesn't care about the little details. She wants Pearl back. With her unsteady alliances and bitter truces, Lapis does something she never imagined she would do. Go back into the basement. (Originally posted to AO3, Sequel to 'The Door Slammed Shut and the Lights Went Out.)
1. Chapter 1 - Unsettling disappearance

Lapis had wondered what the world was like outside her cell, she watched the eerie glowing green lights that illuminated her life. She could barely see outside the glass that held her back.  
Occasionally after some intense concentration Lapis would see movement, shapes moving about in the darkness, always watching, always listening. Lapis would try to remember where she was, how she got there. All she could remember was her name and if she tried to remember anymore a sharp sensation would pierce into her head.  
With a blink she ended up watching something go into her mouth, with a silent scream she blinked once more. It would be over.

She was alone again…

—

Lapis opened her eyes and looked round the room idly. 'I am no longer in that tank, I will no longer get hurt.' That's what she told herself. But she would have to thank Peridot and Pearl for that, if they never found her she would still be rotting down in that basement. Lapis frowns and she holds the necklace that Pearl gave her, she doesn't know why she's thinking of the basement so suddenly. Perhaps reading that earlier document on Peridots computer had something to do with it.

"She stormed off?!" Lapis heard Peridot yelp at Amethyst, her voice clearly conveying her confusion. She turned to face the two standing by the front door, Amethyst's face was red and she was huffing constantly. It was like any moment that she'll charge at something.

"That's right! Agh! she's such an idiot!" She flung her hands into the air and then crossed them dramatically, "She's always been like this too! She just doesn't listen!"

Lapis frowned a little. That definitely wasn't the Pearl she knew, then again she only knew her for a few days. Briefly the image of a calm and composed Pearl sprung into her head, holding her protectively despite her being the one that needs protecting. The thought made Lapis blush. 'I can't be thinking about her, not right now… She's still mourning her dead loved one for goodness sake!' Lapis mentally slapped herself and listened to the ongoing conversation.

"Do you think we should go after her?" Peridot asked,

"I don't care, she can go ahead and keep doing whatever!" Amethyst replied,

"What…" Peridot stared at her, "What is that supposed to mean?!"

Lapis continued staring at them from the sidelines. She needed to stay and question Peridot more about what she is or about what she was meant to do, but if all Peridot was going to do is try and convince Amethyst to go after Pearl then she would rather leave it for later. Lapis glanced again at Amethyst, she was starting to get on her nerves.  
She stood up and walked by them through the open door.

"Where are you going?" Amethyst asked her with a huff,

"I'm going to check on Pearl." Lapis replied bitterly and walked off.

The forest was very peaceful, scary, but peaceful. It managed to clear Lapis's head long enough for her to notice that Peridot followed her.

"Why are you?-"

"I think Amethyst needs some time to cool down," Peridot replied,

"No kidding," Lapis huffs.

"Oh! Umm... Can you wait a minute? I want to show you something," Peridot wrung her hands and gave an awkward smile. It was pitiful at how hard she was trying, 'What does she want?'. Lapis raised an eyebrow and followed her to a pile of dirt. Lapis recognised the area and that this was where she and Pearl met the strange technician. "I uh, wanted to bury this thing and forget about it... But I feel like you need it more..."

"What are you on about?" Lapis asked tilting her head slightly, she watched the shorter girl brush away the dirt frantically till a small wooden box was visible. She pulled it out and gave it to Lapis, she was sweating nervously and her lips were in a straight line. Her wide eyes watched Lapis open the box and inside Lapis found something she did not expect.

She pulled out an old tape of some sorts, 'DON'T TOUCH' was scribbled to the fading label. Lapis looked up to Peridot who was looking away with a red, flustered face.  
"Why did you bury this?" she asked,

"Well..." Peridot hesitated, "It's my old notes... From when I was working on those disgusting experiments and when I first came here... To the surface..." She quickly cleared her throat and began walking along the trail again, "Just take it! My ignorance back then was... embarrassing... SO DON'T GIVE IT TO ANYONE!" She barked, "especially Pearl!"

Lapis smiled and quickly joined her again.

They walked side by side silently until they reached the familiar pathway of Beach City, Lapis noticed Peridot was nervously clenching her hands and would sometimes wriggle uncomfortably. She deduced that there was something Peridot wanted to ask but was to hesitant due to the earlier event.

"Are you okay Peridot?" Lapis asked her gently,

"I… W-well…" Peridot blushed a little, "I know Amethyst seems… Well… Troublesome… But she really is a good person."

"I know." Lapis grumbled and watched the sea draw nearer,

"You know?" Peridot frowned,

"I may not like her that much, but I know she only wants the best for Pearl and…" Lapis paused and looked back to Peridot, "What do you think of Pearl?"

"At first? Terrifying. I felt threatened to be even in close proximity to her." Peridot hummed, "But now I guess I show respect to her. As a regular person, she is very capable."

"I see…" Lapis smirked, 'There's nothing regular about Pearl.'

"What do you think of Pearl?"

"I think she's wonderful," Lapis said without hesitation but blushed soon after, "I mean, she's strong and very careful… About everything… But she's really sad." Lapis sighed softly, "I don't want her to be sad."

Lapis glanced at Peridots cocked eyebrow,

"Stop it," Lapis grinned, "Pearl does the exact same thing so it's unoriginal."

"I'm not copying! We're surprisingly similar!" and at that Lapis thought about Pearl; tall, elegant, graceful, a bit bird-like. Then she thought about Peridot; short, clumsy, a little cat-like, she is almost considered cute. Like a 'small slice of pie'. Lapis grinned in amusement.

When they finally reached Beach city, Lapis was greeted by the friendly face of Mr Fryman. He was carrying a heavy looking bag that Lapis could only guess was potatoes.

"Morning Mr Fryman," she greeted and stopped walking,

"Oh Morning Lapis!" He put down the bag and wiped his forehead, "hope it's a nice day today." He said and then noticed Peridot hiding behind her,

"That's Peridot," Lapis answered his question before he said anything, "We're going to see Pearl."

"Oh…" He sighed a little, "she's not in the best of moods… do you two know anything about it?"

Peridot looked up at her, distress written all over her face. Lapis herself wanted to know why Pearl was behaving a little strangely, but she would rather ask her herself instead of theorising.

"No, sorry," She stated bluntly,

"Well then, nice seeing you," He picked the bag up again and smiled, "I need to get these inside, I'll manage though, have a nice day!" He then waddled away with a bright red face, Lapis shook her head a little. 'When will that man learn not to take too much at once?'

Leaving the boardwalk she spotted the lonely house. It looked small and pleasant like it always had but she felt her anxiety build each step she took towards the entrance. Only a few knew of the horrors of this house and it's basement, it's a secret that she would keep forever if she could. 'Can I?' Now that was an interesting thought, but Peridot snapped her back into reality.

"So he was interesting…"

"He means well," Lapis replied and continued walking to the house, worry started to set in. She knew something bad will, or has, happened. It was unexplainable, a 'gut reaction' some might say.

"You never told him the truth." Peridot looked up at her, she never had an accusing tone as it was soft and curious,

"I didn't want to wait any longer."

"Wait? What do you-" Lapis noticed Peridot glance up at her with concern, "are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Lapis reached the front door and stopped for a moment.

She lifted her hand to chap the door and hesitated slightly, she couldn't hear anything coming from inside. 'Perhaps she isn't home.' Lapis bit her lip and jolted a little when she felt Peridot touch her arm.

"I'm fine…" Lapis shook her hand away and knocked on the door.

No answer.

"Is she in?" Peridot looked through the window but failed as the blinds were down.

"Pearl?!" Lapis called through the door, but when there was still no answer she turned the door handle and slowly opened the door.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Peridot whisper-screamed, "That's breaking and entering!"

"Oh? you of all people tell me that?" Lapis smirked and Peridot frowned with a blush, "Relax," Lapis walked inside as Peridot crept in after her, she looked prepared to jump through a window if she even thought about a siren or security guard. The taller girl grinned when she seen Peridot hide behind the counters instinctively. She should be cautious too however, Garnet set the rules and even if Pearl was considerate there are many others that wouldn't hesitate to throw her in another prison. 'I don't want to be trapped again.'

Lapis looked up the stairs, the curtains where open and she could see that there was no one in the bedroom. The kitchen was clean like always but yet again empty, the bathroom was unlocked and surprisingly it was empty. Lapis brought two fingers to the bridge of her nose.

"She's not here…"

"No… take a look at this…" Lapis followed Peridots voice and found her looking down into the basement, Lapis got shivers as she approached the opening.  
Peridot looked up at her and gave Lapis a shred of fabric whilst slamming the basement closed. Her face was pale. Lapis examined the fabric, it was a nice teal colour and it felt familiar, it was speckled in red drops and from the metallic smell of iron, Lapis knew it was blood.

"It's… Pearl's." Her heart lurched and her hands shook ever so slightly. "It's from her shirt! -just… What could have happened?" She looked at Peridot a little accusingly, "Where did you find this?"

"It was stuck on that basement door." Peridot pointed to the hatch. Lapis looked at it and she went pale, 'I can't go there again! I just can't!' "Lapis? Lapis!" She turned to Peridot who was supportingly holding her arm,

"I- I must go after her…" Lapis felt like she would collapse at any moment, but worrying about Pearl made her even sicker, "call Amethyst, get her over here… Now."


	2. Chapter 2- Into Darkness

Lapis sat on the couch. She was much calmer than before but she quite frankly never wanted to stand up, the couch was nice and warm. Mostly it was filled with good memories, like Pearl.  
'Nice going at calming yourself down' Lapis grumbled, 'Pearl is down there probably fighting for her life and is in torment!' She dragged herself away from her thoughts and continued to watch Peridot pace round the living room. It reminded her of Pearl- ' **Nope!** not going there!' Lapis grumbled again.

Thankfully Amethyst burst into the house and she had something else to focus on, something completely opposite of Pearl. Perfect.

"What's going on?!" She pants and Peridot drags her to the couch. She sits despite protesting against it.

"Pearl is gone." Lapis responded and stood up. She didn't want to sit beside Amethyst, whatever she done to Pearl that made her run off- 'It's her fault Pearl's gone.'  
Of course, Lapis isn't going to voice this opinion. She didn't want to start another argument. Lapis looked up the stairs into the bedroom and sees a flashlight sitting on the desk unattended, it was Pearls. She started climbing the stairs to get it, a sudden unexplained compulsion.

"What? Hey! Where are you going?!" was all she heard from Amethyst as she left.

Lapis came down quickly and she glared at the basement panel. She kept close to it, wanting to open it and just go into the basement, but waited. She was grinding her teeth and shuffling the torch from hand to hand, but she still waited. Peridot had already started to fill in all the details to Amethyst, it was a long boring explanation that really could have been summarized with 'Pearl is in **there** ' and she had to wait. Lapis questioned herself momentarily, 'Is Pearl really **there**? She could be somewhere by the beach or-' She bought a hand to her face, 'bloodied fabric clung to the basement door, it;s obvious that she's in there.'

A glance at Peridot and Amethyst proved to be unfruitful, 'This is taking forever!' Lapis huffed impatiently and she opened the basement door before anyone could stop her.

Nothing could have prepared her for what she seen...

Blood was smeared all over the walls and down the stairs; it was still fresh. Large scratches were carved into the steps; monstrous and brutal. Then she seen faint ones along the walls; scratches from fingernails, desperately trying to escape. She almost cried when she seen bloody handprints that were already drying. Handprints that were the exact match to Pearls hands.

"LAPIS! get back here!" Peridot shut the panel and pulled her away. "You're going to stay up here and me and Amethyst will go down there-"

"N-no! Lapis tightened her grip on the torch she felt the water in the sink churn. "I'm going! That's final!"

"How are you going to be any help?" Amethyst frowned,

Lapis gave her an 'are you serious' look, seconds later she summoned a bottle of water from the kitchen and it floated into her palm.

"Okay, you have your weird witchy powers of water and whatever-" Amethyst added on, clearly flustered, "but!"

"I'm going." Lapis replied with a glare.

Amethyst crossed her arms and huffed, Peridot looked between them expectantly.

"She wins!" Amethyst proclaimed,

"B-but!" Peridot gasped, "She's not even wearing anything practical! What is a dainty dress going to do other than get caught on things?"

Lapis put her bottle down on the counter with a clunk, "That's an excellent point Peridot." She walked by them and into the bedroom, "I'd better get changed," she said, but before Lapis closed the curtains behind her she looked down to them, "I'd create a supply bag if I were you. Who knows what will be down there." she heard them grumble at that.

Quickly putting away her dress and pulling on her other clothes (borrowing one of Pearls shirts as her blue one was now a crusty purple with the amount of blood on it and the new resident of the trash can), Lapis spotted a backpack sitting beside the desk. Hesitantly she picked it up, it wasn't hers, but she needed something to hold her equipment. She rummaged through the organised drawers and put batteries into the pockets, she glared at the phone charger and thought logically 'phones need connection and power to function, other than currency… but that's not important... Do I need it?'

She stared at it for a moment before she finally took the wire and plug, throwing them into the bag before she changed her mind. Lapis thought hard on what else she needed and ended up taking a few random objects like handkerchiefs and tape. Finally Lapis grabbed one of Pearl's shirts, 'With such a tear in her shirt, she's bound to want a replacement,' Lapis tried to laugh at her attempt of a joke but nearly ended up crying.

She couldn't believe she was doing this. Lapis breathed out shakily as she leaned onto the desk and she shut her eyes tightly, everything was painful and uncomfortable. The room screamed 'Pearl' like always and with her gone...  
'Was this what Pearl felt for all these years?' Lapis brought a hand up to her chest, it felt like a tight knot and it **hurt**. 'It's horrible... It feels horrible.'  
With another sigh she tries to calm down and her hand finds the small pendant that Pearl gave her.  
'I got you something else...' Her voice filled her head and Lapis smiled at the memory, 'as an apology... For leaving you... Locked... in a house... Where you were trapped in the basement...'  
The pendant was cradled in her palm, 'She's so silly.'

Taking the backpack again, Lapis finally sighs calmly. "I'm getting her back."

Going back downstairs, Lapis watched Peridot and Amethyst pack the entire kitchen into the bag. She wasn't even exaggerating.

"What are you? Moving there or something?" Lapis said, "I doubt you need those uncooked groceries Amethyst…"

"They might have a stove!"

Lapis raised an eyebrow "Evil scientists that sow people together? I doubt they have a working stove. If they do, do you think they'll let you use it?" Amethyst grumbled and she then watched the two put several things back into the kitchen as she placed a few bottles of water and packs of snack bars into her bag.

Pearl would kill them if she seen the mess her house had become.

"Here, take this!" Amethyst threw her a box, on closer inspection it was the box of tea that Pearl enjoyed, berry tea. Lapis threw Amethyst another look of disbelief. "Just take it!"

'Perfect. I'll have a tea party with crazed murderers. Just how I expected my supposed **freedom** to go.'

Finally strapping the bag on and grabbing the very same flash light Pearl used when she found her, Lapis stood before the basements door again.

"Peri, I need you to stay here." Lapis heard Amethyst, she was beside the couch with Peridot.

"But!" The short girl protested,

"Listen, I texted Garnet and she said she's coming." Lapis watched Amethyst slowly part from her, "I need you here for Garnet, she'll need you if we're not back."

"But…" Peridot looked to be on the verge of a panic attack.

"I know…" Amethyst replied softly, "Garnet will probably get here at around six, once she gets there and we're not back by eight then you can go down with Garnet. Okay?"

Lapis seen Peridot sniff and nod her head, it was followed by Amethyst looking around the house furiously

.

"Hey Lapis!" Amethyst called to her,

"What?" she replied bitterly,

"Do you know where Pearl keeps those walkie talkies?"

"Excuse me?" Lapis frowned, "Walkie talkie?"

"Yeah, police officers use them to talk to each other when on duty," Amethyst explained,

"Why would she have that?"

"Well Duh! She works with Garnet!" Amethyst began rummaging around the house and looked into various cabinets, "I mean, she never told you that she tracks people down? How do you think she gets her cash?"

"Pearl's a police officer?" Peridot wiped her eyes again,

"Not really, she's like an agent! kinda cool huh?" Amethyst grinned when she finally found a blank box, opening it she pulled out two phone like devices and handed one to Peridot. "Call us whenever."

Finally Amethyst walked up to the basement after clipping the device onto her shoulder strap.

"Okay… Let's go!" She opened the basement panel quickly.

Despite the initial surprise of blood, they switched on their torch (and phone) and ventured into the darkness.  
"Stay safe!" Peridot called out to them, Lapis turned and gave her a thumbs up once they reached the bottom.

Lapis looked round the room, empty, other than the faint blood trail leading into **that** place. Lapis shivered and watched Amethyst curiously flick the light switch.

"It's not working." She shook her head, Lapis took a look at the light bulbs.

"They look fine, the electricities out." Lapis stated and continued through the larger hole in the wall, Amethyst followed behind her into the main area.

"Can't see a thing!" Amethyst grunted as she followed the trail of blood. Lapis felt sick at the thought that the blood belonged to Pearl. She tried looking elsewhere, specifically the corners of the corridors and rooms. Whatever did this to Pearl may still be around and could be watching them, waiting to attack at any moment.  
Lapis began looking at the tables and other objects littering the floor, it's as if something had been thrown about violently, something… Or someone…  
What was strange about the blood trail and furniture was that there was no blood anywhere other than the trail, not only that, but they've been following the trail for a while and if someone who was dragged was to lose this much blood… well… let's just say that this much blood in a person was not normal.

"I have a bad feeling about this…" Lapis aimed her torch at Amethyst again, who was obediently following the blood.

"Calm down. Every-" Amethyst suddenly stopped and pointed ahead, "Hey! look what I found!"

"Amethyst don't!" But it was too late, the girl had ran up ahead and picked up the strange object in the floor. Seconds later they heard a loud thump from where they had come from. "What was that?" She asked looking back.

"I don't know… But let's find out!" Lapis ran back with Amethyst, dodging tables and dangerous instruments the way there. When they got back to the basement, they paled at what they discovered.

"The hatch!" Amethyst ran up the stairs to try and open it, "it's sealed shut!"


	3. Chapter 3- Trapped

"I can't believe it…" Amethyst huffed, "she locked us in here."

"No she didn't." Lapis pointed to the walkie talkie, "use it."

"I've tried! the other one must be turned off!" Amethyst replied,

"Then it looks like we're stuck here either way." Lapis walked back through the hole in the wall again and continued walking,

"Why do you just leave without saying anything?!" Amethyst grunted after her,

"Listen, Pearl is in here somewhere and I'm not wasting any time!" Lapis turned to her, "She's probably hurt! alone! cold! I need to save her like she saved me!" a moment later, Lapis turned and kept walking again. She clenched her hands into fists and frowned the further she went, silently hoping that what she said earlier wasn't true.

"You really care about her that much?" Amethyst growled and marched on ahead, "I've known her longer! **I know** **her**!"

"And I don't?!" Lapis could feel the water quiver in the pipes, she swore that somewhere she burst a pipe. "I think that-"

"I don't care what **you** think!" Amethyst retorted, " **you're** just a experiment! **you're not real!** " The short girl growled and pushed on ahead, Lapis followed behind her begrudgingly. "I don't know why **you** are even interested in Pearl. **You left her!** "

" **SHUT UP!** "

The water pipes around them burst and the water built up menacingly around her, Lapis was about to spit out more venom to Amethyst until she seen the look of terror on the pudgy girls face. She slowly took a breath and the water dropped, forming puddles around them and soaking numerous papers and tables.

"She's the most important person to me right now," Lapis said and then quickly scoffed, "I don't think **you'd** understand though. **You can't do anything. You're powerless!** "

Amethyst stayed silent. Lapis glanced at her and she momentarily felt bad, in was unnecessary yet she still had to say it. She shook her head slightly, 'There's no time to be concerned about Amethyst.'

They silently followed the trail until it reached the point where they had ran back, Lapis looked at Amethyst curiously.

"What did you find?"

"Paint can," Amethyst answered her, "it's actually brown paint, but the fresh stuff looks red…" Lapis watched the girl pick up the can she seen before. It was definitely a paint can and it emanated a metallic smell.  
A wave of relief washed over her, 'it's not blood… thank goodness!' , but then fear set in. 'Did someone lure us? to close the panel?' Lapis looked round and began looking at the documents on the battered tables, there was some speckles of the paint… or perhaps it was real blood this time? She ignored it for now, if it was blood it must have only been a minor cut.

"Let's continue, we're almost at the tank." Lapis marched on, her torch brightly guiding her.

The tables were just like how she left them and instruments carefully placed upon dusty, white sheets. Lapis shivered when she remembered being strapped down to one of the tables, feeling needles pierce her skin, being injected with something that made her burn on the inside. **They** always kept touching her, cutting her, forcing things down her throat that made her cough and gag. **Their** eyes were on her again.  
She felt safer when she reached the water that flooded the area around the tank. Now filled with a murky, black liquid. Even if she squinted she wouldn't be able to see the body of the fusion she drowned there. It had turned to dust.

"Ew." Amethyst gagged a little,

"Definitely."

Lapis jumped when she heard a loud 'beep' coming from Amethyst, it echoed off the walls loudly and she raised a hand in preparation of an attack. She watched the shorter girl fiddle with the walkie talkie before they heard Peridot's voice.

"Hello?! HELLO?!" The nasally voice came in,

"We read you Peri!" Amethyst replied with a grin,

"Thank the stars you're okay…" Peridot sighed, "I'm sorry! the entrance just shut by itself! I've been trying to open it ever since it closed!"

"That's okay, we're at the tank right now." Amethyst looked at the murky liquid,

There was a short silence before Peridot replied, "Is Lapis okay?"

Amethyst stayed silent, "I'm fine Peridot," Lapis spoke harshly to the device, casting a glare at the shorter girl "Pearl isn't here, we're going to have to go deeper but I don't know the way."

"Right, I'll guide you from there… I have blueprints on my phone…" Peridot said, perhaps she sounded a little too smug.

Amethyst took the lead again and Lapis followed behind her, she would regularly check behind her but discover nothing. She felt herself growing more and more paranoid from the surroundings, 'being in a boiler room does not help,' Lapis flinched at the drops of water and jumped at the steam being released from the pipes. She looked back ahead again and managed to stop herself walking into the shorter girl when she suddenly stopped.

"That looks like a problem…" Amethyst groaned.

Curiously, Lapis aimed her light source ahead and discovered the doorway had been blocked by an assortment of tables, chairs and machinery.

"It'll take us all day to move it out the way." Amethyst pulled out a ceiling fan that was sitting in front of the pile and chucked it to the side,

"There might be a way around, start looking," She faintly heard Amethyst mutter an 'I know.' Lapis began checking the corners for any sort of ventilation grate, but all the ones she found were too small to fit inside. The idea of being unable to progress made Lapis anxious, she paced around restlessly and discovered a small hallway they hadn't explored off the the side.

But another loud beep was heard and Peridot began to speak before she ditched Amethyst, "Are you two through the boiler area yet?"

"We've ran into a problem, the doorway's blocked, do you know any way around it?" Amethyst spoke into the walkie talkie after a familiar beep of her pressing the button,

A few seconds later and Peridot responded, "Theres a pathway you can take along the pipes, but be cautious, the pipes contain boiling water and will burn you if you're not careful!"

"What about this hallway?" Lapis asked her and pointed the the side,

"It's longer and less direct, don't go down that way, you'll be there for hours." Peridot replied, Lapis gritted her teeth and gave the dark hallway one last parting look before returning to her current enemy by the hot pipes.

"Okay, thanks." Amethyst clicked the device and then walked over to the rusted pipes on the side wall. Lapis could feel the heat given off and she wasn't that close to them. She followed her torch along the pipes until she found a small crawl-space directly under them.

"Over there," She pointed for Amethyst and let her lead the way again, but then frowned at Amethyst's attempts at crawling. "You need to get lower to the floor or you'll get burned."

"Listen, the floor isn't-"

"Amethyst." Lapis glared at her protest, a few seconds later and the shorter girl slipped into the crawlspace safely.

Lapis followed her a few seconds later, the heat produced from the pipes where overwhelming and the floor was rough on her bare arms.

"I know in comparison to the cold corridors and everything that this should be better…" Lapis heard Amethyst from up ahead, "But it's not better! OUCH!"

"What happened?" Lapis asked,

"The pipes are leaky! perfect!" Amethyst replied, Lapis could hear her starting to crawl a little faster. "More pipes up ahead!"

Lapis groaned in reply.

They continued to keep crawling. The pipes drew closer and more water leaked out, sometimes their bags protected them, other times they was burned. Lapis never had much to report on her surroundings, the pipes where brown with rust and it was difficult to aim her torch anywhere. A loud beep from the walkie talkie scared her and burned her shoulder against the pipes, but at least it was relieving to hear Peridot again.

She wasn't as clear as last time and Lapis could only understand sections as everything that came from the radio was loud static, Amethyst managed to decipher something about restoring power to open the electronic doors further along.

"Electronic doors?" Lapis hummed with amusement, "High-budget aren't they?"

"More like show-offs." Amethyst grumbled back at her, Lapis glanced up at her and noticed the shorter girl turn of her light and look left. "Turn your light off, now!" She whispered.

Lapis fumbled a little with the switch and crawled along carefully to join Amethyst. Looking left, she discovered a grate looking down into a corridor, it was too small to fit through and frankly they never wanted to with what they seen.

There was fusions and monster-like beings littering the place, they were everywhere.

But other than the horde of creatures that caught her attention, it was the sound of something being dragged along, slowly. They gasped when they seen a large, lumbering monster, covered in the same paint that they encountered before, and dragging a limp body bag behind it.

Lapis gasped slightly too loudly and had to clamp her hand over her mouth. The monster noticed and began dragging a little faster, the monsters however clustered round the grate. Amethyst and Lapis crawled away as fast as they could, the sounds of the monsters trying to yank off the grate echoed behind them.  
They jumped out the crawlspace the first opportunity they had and sighed in relief once they heard the monsters shamble away…

Only to hear the sound of a loud creak of metal and then the sound of slivering.

They looked around the room quickly and covered the hole with anything that they could find. Amethyst grabbed a table and pulled it in in front as Lapis grabbed spare metal pipes in the corner of the room. They kept piling anything heavy but there wasn't much that they could use.

"It won't hold long!" Lapis panicked and began looking round again, she noticed a switch on the wall that was completely broken and had wires poking out of it. 'That must be the power switch… No way will I be able to fix it.'

"Can you do anything with the water in the pipes?!" Amethyst asked her as the barricade began to shake and eyes peered at them from the crawlspace. "Come on! You have powers over it! Do something!"

Lapis took a deep breath and concentrated, she felt the water churn in the pipes and she forced it out, breaking rusted metal bolts and spraying boiling water through out the tunnel. The sound of screaming and the sound of limp bodies then followed. They were safe for now.


	4. Chapter 4 - Amethyst

They were still in that boiler room, trapped in the 'basement'.

Lapis sat down on top of a table and Amethyst was across from her in a chair, they both looked at each other tiredly and sighed more than they needed to.

"Peridot?" Lapis asked, looking at the walkie talkie Amethyst had that was still strapped onto her bag. The shorter girl shook her head in response.

"Nothing." She clicked a few buttons and all that was heard was static, they fell into a silence again.

"I blew our cover, didn't I?" Lapis sighed and absently glanced back to the pipes, still littered with corpses that are degrading into dust.

"Yeah, you did... and It may not even be Pearl…" Amethyst huffed out quickly, "I mean, we never actually seen her."

"But who else could it have been?" Lapis said, "Monster covered in paint, dragging something behind it, strong enough to make a barricade…" she listed off, "and if it wasn't her, then where would she be?"

"Hopefully somewhere other than being trapped in a room…" Amethyst muttered,

"The door's unlocked Amethyst…"

She stayed silent again. Lapis knew that they could progress whenever they wanted to, but with no electricity and those things patrolling around it was near impossible to do anything. So for now, they'll rest in the safety of the room, 'Or until the door opens and we're killed'.  
Lapis groaned, she shouldn't be thinking like that. Pearl managed to save her when she was trapped in the tank and injured herself doing so, she risked her life for her. 'I can do that for her too.'

Lapis glanced at Amethyst again, she was silently staring at the floor.

She huffed stepped down from the table and put a hand onto the shorter girls shoulder. "You okay?"

"Yeah right... like **you** care." Amethyst spat back at her,

"I'm being serious..." Lapis then grumbled when the hunched over girl still did not respond, "look, Pearl is important to the both of us and we're stuck here together. I need to make sure you're okay." Amethyst stayed silent, "So I'll ask again... **Are you okay?** "

After a moment, Lapis grumbled and turned away with the lack of response. Then Amethyst shook her head and finally burst out what she really thought, "I just don't understand, it's- It's my fault!" Tears began to drop onto her lap, "Everything's my fault! If I just kept her longer! If she never stormed off I could have!- I could have!"

"Wha- Amethyst, calm down…" Lapis rubbed her arm but jumped when Amethyst flinched, she had forgotten that she had a few burns. "Listen, it's not your fault, if anything it's mine…"

"What?" Amethyst sniffed. Lapis sighed and put her bag down, opening it she pulled out some medicine and bandages. Using them to cover the burns.

"You were right, I shouldn't have left her…" Lapis began as she secured the bandage, "I just wanted to learn more about myself… I wanted to get away from… here…" She glanced around the room.

They stayed silent for a moment again, only the sound of Amethysts wincing was heard until she spoke up, "We were both pretty stupid… Weren't we?" she chuckled bitterly, " Pearl was right… I was being selfish."

Lapis frowned and put the supplies back into her bag.

"When we spoke outside… I was questioning why she let you stay at Peridots… I'm such an idiot." Amethyst continued,

"No you're not." Lapis put her bag back on, "You where being careful, Peridot is strange after all-"

"No she isn't!" Amethyst burst out again then furiously blushed, "I was given an excuse to stay with her when she said she was alone. I wanted to stay with her! I knew if you stayed with her then I would have to leave and I-"

"Why on earth did you think you would have to leave?" Lapis huffed, "listen, I may have been trapped all my life but I know she likes you! She's always grinning when you're around and even when she walked me down here she cared about you first!"

Amethyst was blushing now, "really?"

"Really." Lapis nodded,

Amethyst wiped her eyes a final time and then chuckled, "Then I guess I'll have to tell her how I feel once we get out!" She stood up and cautiously walked to the door, "Now, let's go get Pearl."

—

They crept through the hallways and hid from the lumbering forms in the dark. Lapis watched them carefully from behind a cabinet, they were blocking the way towards the corridor where they seen the paint speckled monster. She watched Amethyst move across the hallway, the shorter girl movements similar to a professional criminal and had a small stone in her hand. After a grin and wink to Lapis she chucked it into a side room, the monsters immediately ran after the sound of the stone hitting (and breaking) some glass. Quickly sneaking up behind them, Lapis closed the door and toppled a heavy cabinet over, locking the monsters inside.  
Amethyst and Lapis then continued on their way after a short, celebratory high-five.

"Why do you want to save Pearl so much anyway? I mean, **I** want to, but Is it only to repay her? Or is it because of something else?" Amethyst whispered,

"I don't know what you mean…" Lapis replied,

"Oh, I see…" Amethyst grinned and Lapis blushed a little, "I guess now we have to convince Pearl of her feelings, she maybe more experienced with relationships and everything but she's as dense as a brick wall."

"A brick wall?" Lapis smirked,

"Yeah, hard to get through at first, but once you climb over it everything's clear." Amethyst said with a voice that clearly mocked Pearls,

"You got that from Pearl..."

"That's where you're wrong!" She pointed at her with a cheshire grin. "I actually got it from Garnet."

Lapis scoffed, shook her head slightly and grinned.

They continued walking down the dark hallways, the smell of metal was overwhelming in some areas and the sounds of groaning and screaming polluted the corridors. Slipping by another monster, Lapis looked back to Amethyst... 'I guess it's better late than never to tell her...'

"I don't want to be a burden," Lapis whispered as she surveyed the area, it looked like a large lab that had many rooms and doors.

"What? Are you leaving me here?" Amethyst crossed her arms, "I can say for a fact that you're not a 'burden' and-"

"I don't want to be a burden on **her** ," Lapis elaborated, "on Pearl."

"What makes you think that?" Amethyst asked,

Lapis's cheeks tinged with colour, "W-what do **you** think? I haven't been able to do anything myself, relying on her all the time when she still wasn't over Rose!"

"Ah, I guess she told you..." The pudgy girl hummed, "but, I think that it was a good thing. I mean, sometimes it's nice to feel relied upon."

"Yeah...? Not **all** the time though!-"

"and I think it's time for her to move on," Amethyst quickly stopped her, "I can tell she's happier with you, just show her how you feel."

They smiled sincerely at each other and Lapis scratched the back of her neck awkwardly "… Thank you?"

"Oh come on! when you helped me with my love life I gave a better response then that!" Amethyst whispered at her and nudged her playfully,

Lapis was about to reply but she stopped suddenly when she heard a familiar dragging sound. Before She stopped herself, she walked round the corner and came face to face with the monster. It was too late to dodge the wide swing of it's arm.

She was flung into the wall and collapsed. Rusted pipes and loose panels broke off with the violent impact, her head was ringing and her back was killing her. Lapis tried to use the water from the water bottles, she flung the water onto the monster but it was ineffective. It was about to charge and hit her again, and it was a bad time to remember the last monster that charged at her. Thankfully, it stopped long enough that Lapis glanced back at the figure the monster left behind, it was not moving and Lapis's stomach flipped when she likened it's stillness to death.

"HEY!" Lapis turned and seen Amethyst standing in the middle of the corridor, "Why don't you pick on someone your own size!" Despite the situation, Lapis cringed a little at how ironic that was, but when the monster went after Amethyst who was already running away, she felt her heart lurch in fear. As they ran off Lapis got back onto her shaky legs with a grunt and dragged herself over to the figure, shining her torch on it she discovered a bodybag that was leaking the same red paint as before. Opening it, Lapis frowned.

Paint cans, it was a bag filled with paint cans. 'Then Where is Pearl?' She ground her teeth and looked through the bag, it really was full of paint. 'Where did it even get this much paint? was it... was it once in charge of maintenance?' The thought made her sick.

She never knew how long she stayed there staring into the bag in shock and confusion, but she stayed there long enough for Amethyst to run back panting.  
"So? Is it?" She kneeled down and groaned when she seen the bag, "Paint cans? seriously?"

"She's still here… Somewhere…" Lapis painfully stood up,

"Whoa, let me help you there," Amethyst caught her and kept her upright.

Lapis was thankful for the support and nodded, "Thanks…" They slowly began walking away from the bag,

"There's a room right round the corner, we can stay there." Amethyst kept pushing them ahead but Lapis hissed a little in pain as she was pulled along.

"Pick on someone your own size?" Lapis chuckled, "you couldn't have said anything more cliche than that?"

"Look, I was in the moment!" Amethyst huffed, "you try and come up with some witty one-liner when a monster's about to eat your friend!"

They ended up bursting out laughing, painfully in Lapis's case.

"So what happened to it?" Lapis asked looking around the dusty corridors, making sure that nothing was following them and that the paint speckled monster wasn't coming back with a vengeance.

"I locked it in one of the rooms using the same trick as before. They may be strong but they can't beat my brain!" Amethyst grinned and they walked into the first room they seen. It was too dark to notice anything inside and Lapis had to hide her anxiety of walking in.

Lapis breathlessly chuckled, "I never thought that you would be a strategist." Lapis could smack herself at how terrible her humour was.

"Yeah well it's not only Pearl that can do that!" The shorter girl replied.

Lapis sat down on one of the chairs in the room and cautiously looked around. 'Monster-free? Check, Lockable door? check, lights?' Lapis frowned, 'actually that last one might be a bad idea.'  
The room must have been used for software or programming… 'I guess'. She sighed, the only thing she knew was that there where a lot of computers plugged into the walls.

"Pearl could have a field day in here," Amethyst said whilst tapping the power button of a monitor repeatedly,

"No power," Lapis felt the compulsion to remind her.

"That's probably a good thing," Amethyst sat up onto the table.

Lapis never paid much attention to how strange Amethyst was before. She could say that it was remarkable that such a person like Amethyst could still be so cool in such a terrifying situation, then again, all of Pearl's friends where cool in these situations. It was almost as if they all went through something worse than the situation they were in now. 'Did the impact of this Rose's death cause more trauma than this?' Lapis questioned herself and looked round, either way, they had to have some rest.  
Garnet should be making her way with Peridot by now.

—

It was cold, damp and dark. A combination that seemed to be cliched together since the beginning, then again, Pearl sometimes thought of herself as a cliche.  
She shivered as another monster walked by and her arm untimely pulsed in pain, causing her to wince. Pearl paled when the monster stopped and looked around momentarily but sighed in relief when it kept walking after what felt like an hour. She looked back down at her arm and tightened her makeshift bandage that she made with her socks, 'Not a great bandage OR the next fashion statement but it'll do if I don't bleed out.' Pearl sighed and began walking again.

 **Everything** looked the same. She was sick and tired of it, the monster with the paint was most likely still behind her and she can't find any sort of map or landmark that she could use. She almost laughed maniacally when at one moment she had used her phone to take pictures of certain 'posters' that where really just the same logo that could be found on every wall!  
 **Every. Wall.**

With a sigh she came to another decision in the maze. 'Left? or right?' To the left there was a wheelchair-looking thing and to the right there was footprints, 'footprints? or wheelchair?'

There was no way she was going left.

She went right and walked five feet before she seen another fusion experiment from the window of the lab on her right and noticed that it was too big to get out the said lab that it somehow managed to crawl into.

Nope, Left was a good idea.

She turned 180 degrees and walked back, glaring at the wheelchair (that she swore had moved) as she past by.  
When she got to the end of the hallway she was met with another decision, 'left? or straight on?' She tried to look through the darkness ahead of her with narrowed eyes and she only thought of one thing in that moment, 'I wish I had taken that flash-light!'


	5. Chapter 5 - Garnet

Lapis woke up with a start, she was still in the computer room and thankfully she could see the sleeping form of Amethyst lying on a bunch of papers with her bag as a pillow, a make shift bed that she made. Around her was opened packets of energy bars and bottles of water, Lapis didn't know that her first time eating something would be in a situation quite like this, but it was definitely too overpowering to finish. She looked at the unopened bottles of water that she had left, 'I have to be careful and conserve them. It's my defence as well as hydration.'  
Her face cringed when she remembered the taste of the foul liquid she was forced to drink back in her tank. Water was definitely a better source of hydration.

She stretched and felt relieved that the pain of the burns and of her back were gone and that the wounds had healed a little. Lapis glanced at Amethyst, unfortunately her burns where still as bad as before and she muttered out curses when she shuffled about. 'It's easy to forget I'm not normal.'  
With a strong (yet careful) shake, Lapis managed to wake Amethyst up. It was time to move again.  
Her mind wandered a little and she thought back to Amethyst's phone, 'she must know the actual time'

"Time?" Amethyst yawned and rubbed her eyes. She pulled out her phone and passed it to Lapis, that quickly turned it on and was met with the large numbers '1:17am' She sighed, at least it was a comfort to know Garnet and Peridot where somewhere here… 'No actually, it's not comforting when Peridot out of everyone was somewhere in this nightmare.' Lapis looked back at the phone and noticed something very small and very, very strange.

"There's a signal? in here?" Lapis raised an eyebrow, she glanced at Amethyst who had finished placing everything back into her bag, "Should I try calling Pearl?" Lapis asked,

"I doubt she'll get it, but go ahead…" Amethyst hummed and put her bag back on.

Lapis unlocked the phone (with the help of Amethyst sharing her password) and went into the contacts app, the name Pearl was no-where to be seen.

"Oh haha! I forgot…" Amethyst grinned, "I put her name down as 'The Bird'."

"Why do you call her that?" Lapis asked her,

"I think it suits her, she does look a bit like a bird! and she's always been clingy and over-protective like one." Lapis could not deny that Amethyst had hit the nail on the head with that one.

Lapis frowned and looked back at the contacts, "G-Squad?"

"That's Garnet."

"Wondernerd?"

"That's Peridot."

Lapis wished to stop, but her curiosity demanded an answer, "If I was a contact, what would you call me?"

Amethyst hummed in thought, "How about… Water Witch?"

This time Lapis really did stop.

Tapping the 'call' button, Lapis brought the phone up to her ear and watched Amethyst make strange faces that nearly made her laugh. She was hopeful, but she never expected the call to be answered...

"Amethyst thank goodness-" A beep was heard and Lapis almost dropped the phone,

"Pearl?!" Lapis instantly cut her off, "This is Lapis!- just where are you right now?!"

"Oh Lapis!" she heard her voice reply and it made her lightly blush, "I wish I could answer that. But all I can tell you is that I'm in a room full of computers! No power though…" Lapis could faintly hear Pearl grind her teeth in irritation.

"Pearl, listen to me," Lapis began, "we're here! Me and Amethyst are in a computer room too and for some reason they have signal- Just please, don't move! We're coming to find you!" Lapis could hear Pearl breath faintly on the other end, "Garnet and Peridot are also here! but they're not with us at the moment-"

"I'm sorry Lapis, I have to go!" Pearl interrupted, her voice whispering and gradually turing into a panic, "they're here… I need to leave! I'll try and make it to another computer room!"

"Pearl!-"

"Lapis… I-" Pearl paused momentarily but Lapis heard her huff, "I'm sorry! I need to go!"  
She then hung up and left Lapis clutching the phone in worry.

She gave the phone back to Amethyst and picked up her bag.  
There was only one way that she could think of doing in the current situation.

"So?" Amethyst asked, she could see the worry in her eyes,

"She'll try to make it to another computer room…" Lapis sighed, "but I'm not staying here."

"Then how will you contact her? We won't get any signal!" Amethyst huffed,

"No, **I** won't get any signal," Lapis continued, "You'll stay here and wait on the others and guide Pearl when she calls."

"I'm not doing that!"

"You are, and you know that this can't be avoided-"

Lapis was interrupted by the sound of a loud beep. They both looked at the now working walkie talkie Amethyst had in her hand, she held it up like it was some beacon of hope or some ancient relic.

"Come in, this is Garnet!" They heard the cool accented voice of the police woman coming from the device, "I'm within range, come in!"

"Garnet!" Amethyst replied, she almost sounded in tears, "We're here!"

"Where?" Garnet asked, 'You tell me.' Lapis rolled her eyes with a smile.

"It's a computer room! We managed to get a signal in here!" Amethyst answered, "Where are you?"

Another beep and Garnet answered, "Peridot and I are going to fix the power issue. Stay in the room until we call back. Roger."

Amethyst chuckled, "Roger!"

Lapis watched Amethyst clip the device back onto her bag, "Who's Roger?"

—

"Who's Roger?" Peridot asked as she poked at the screen of her phone,

"No one in particular." Garnet replied, some may call her response mysterious, she calls it 'the answer'. Jokes aside, the situation they found themselves in was not so light-hearted.  
Garnet had pulled out her gun and torch and was constantly surveying the area, she never had to use it once and preferably she never wanted to. As stereotypical as it sounded, guns where loud and would cause every monster in the underground base to attack them. She felt it was a better idea to keep the gun at her hip instead now that she thought about it.

They had taken the long corridor to the basement due to Garnet being unable to fit in the small crawlspace without getting burned and then they spent time unblocking the main exit for a suspected quick escape. They were really behind schedule.

"It should be around the corner." Peridot pointed to the right and ran up ahead. If it wasn't for Garnets quick reaction, the monster that jumped out would have landed on the unsuspecting Peridot. She ran up and pushed the monster on it's back and placed a boot onto its chest to keep it down: It wriggled ferociously.

"No running in the halls." Garnet smacked the monster with the heavy torch, it was enough to knock it out for good. Peridot gulped,

"Yeah.. that…"

They entered the room and discovered furniture piled up to the far wall, it looked like a barricade that kept whatever was in the shaft with the hot water pipes out of the main room.

"This must be where Amethyst and Lapis came out, I'm surprised they never turned on the power…" Peridot walked towards the pile of heavy objects and looked into the crawlspace, Garnet also looked and found that there was a few deteriorating bodies that where covered in burns and drenched with water. 'No doubt Lapis had a hand in this.' Garnet then walked up to the panel and noticed the level of disrepair it was in, 'I guess this is why they never turned the power on.' Wires stood out from the cracks and the metal was dented. Despite the condition it was in, it was an easy repair.

"It's busted huh? I forget that I'm the only technical genius sometimes..." Peridot grinned after finally tearing herself away from the havoc behind them, she then struggled to remove the panel and comically whimpered away. Garnet just stared at her as she flipped the latch and opened the **hinged** panel with ease. "I-I could have done that!" Peridot huffed and returned to the panel, pairing wires and unscrewing things with a burning passion. Once she finally flipped the switch and closed the panel the lights flickered on.

"Voila!" She marvelled at her work and Garnet couldn't help but grin at the display. "I'm sure it will be very helpful to the others now that the power's back on!"

—

Long story short. It was **not** helpful that the power was back on.

All the computers. **All. The. Computers.** Turned themselves on loudly and **all** the monsters nearby could hear it. Lapis looked at Amethyst, their eyes already adjusting to the lights being on and then they looked at the dark hallways that had failed to light. Already she seen shifting figures in the darkness. Their faces gradually displayed their shock as realisation hit them.

Lapis brought her palm to her head. 'Well… This is just perfect isn't it?'


	6. Chapter 6 - Running From The Light

"Peri… All the computers are on…" Amethyst said into the walkie talkie,

"What?" Was all she managed to say before Lapis and Amethyst launched towards the door to keep it shut as the experiments began to scratch and bound at in from the outside. Lapis gasped when a hand smashed through the window and almost knocked her away, she barely managed to keep dodging it.

"Great idea Peridot! Now we're sitting ducks out here!" Amethyst grunted into the walkie talkie as they kept struggled to keep the door closed. It was now slightly opening when the monsters would pound and the hands in the window had multiplied.

"Listen I never knew that the computers would all turn on at once! and so suddenly!" Peridot replied from the walkie talkie,

"That's a load of b-"  
Suddenly Amethyst was interrupted by a loud thud coming from down the hall, it was so loud that they could feel the impact and the surviving glass that wasn't broken by experiments were shaking. They watched all the monsters run off, chasing after the noise and Lapis left the room as soon as she was sure they where gone.

"Well, that's convenient…" Lapis hums, Amethyst just stared with a gaping mouth. They had been extremely lucky recently.

They continue walking again and decided to investigate what caused the mysterious noise, purposefully avoiding the well lit areas as it made the experiments swarm like moths.  
Looking round the corner that the monsters disappeared past, they discovered that a larger fusion had wandered into a ceiling fan and it caused the entire ceiling panel to come down. A metallic smell emanated from the scene and some red liquid hand prints were found on the walls, it was as if something climbed up it. Lapis glanced at Amethyst to confirm what she seen, the short girl remained expressionless as they walked away as quietly as possible.

"Place is falling apart," Amethyst whispered, "Back there?" She pointed to the computer room, "That was close, too close!"

They continued to creep away from the ridiculously lucky event, past the computer room and down the hall. All previous plans of splitting up had left their minds. Amethyst switched off the walkie talkie long enough for them to get a safe distance away, she planned on calling Peridot and ranting about how lucky they were. They never done this of course, Lapis's legs still shook and Amethyst still had the 'I can't believe it' expression of hers. They walked like zombies, fully conscious and alive, but slowly losing sanity.

Amethyst absently turned the radio on and brought it to her face, "Garnet," she said lowly into the device, "I thought that you would call us before you turned the power on…"

"Oops." Was all that she replied,

"OOPS?!" Now enraged, Amethyst marched on ahead all whilst muttering how much she was going to kill the two of them. Lapis genuinely hoped that she was joking.

They took a sharp corner and yelped at they seen two lights pointed at them, Lapis froze when she was looking down the barrel of a gun, it was inches away from her face. She stepped back and (thankfully) seconds later the weapon was put away into the holster, they sighed in relief when it was only Garnet and Peridot. But if it wasn't for Amethyst that kept her up, her knees would have buckled and she would have fallen just from the shock.  
"What have I said?!" Peridot turned to Garnet, "Stop pulling out your weapon! You know you can't use it in here!"

"Sorry, it's a habit," Garnet shrugged,

Lapis smiled despite her near death and welcomed the familiar faces. It even made Amethyst forget her anger.

"Finally!" Amethyst grinned and hugged them both, "It took you two long enough!"

"We had to clear out the debris." Peridot blushed and hugged back, "find Pearl?"

"Not yet," Lapis replied, "But we managed to call her, so we know she's down here."

"You have a lot of explaining to do." Amethyst suddenly frowned and crossed her arms, 'Nope, she still demands vengeance.'

"I'm sorry?" Peridot said weakly,

Amethyst looked at her blankly for a moment, then she folded her arms. "It's fine, we're just insanely lucky to be alive, yeah, no biggie." Amethyst huffed, 'I doubt she's fine, but at least she's calmed down.'

"We're happy you guys are okay," Lapis added, it earned a few smiles, "and I'm certain Pearl's okay too, we'll find her."

"Yeah, I mean, how big can this place be?" Amethyst agreed,

Peridot regained her sly smile, "Actually… About that…"

"This place is huge," Garnet replied, "There are three levels that connect with each other and hundreds of possible places where Pearl can be at any given time."

"She said that she would find more rooms with computers if that's of any help," Lapis said quickly, her hands clenched slightly and she gripped the torch tighter,

"It still doesn't change the numbers," Garnet replied, "she may be searching for a specific room but it doesn't mean she will be there."

"Then what can we do?" Amethyst groaned,

Garnet fixed her shades, (that Lapis thought impractical) before finally answering.

"We must split up."

—

Splitting up never really bothered Lapis, she was finally making more progress than she did with Amethyst. Dodging the swinging lamps and running through the darkness, Lapis reached her first set of stairs. She pulled out a walkie talkie that Garnet had given her and decided to report in her progress. It really did feel strange acting like something she wasn't.

"Just go down and try not to get lost." Garnet responded,

"Please don't get lost, we don't need another Pearl." Peridot also responded from Amethyst's device. Lapis was rather happy that Peridot was paired with Amethyst, it was like the brawn and the brain, working together harmoniously. Then again, she knew the real reason Garnet put them together was for them to become closer.

Quickly running down the rusted staircase whilst trying to make as little noise as possible (which was close to impossible), Lapis was in the next floor of the underground base. She gasped at the state it was in, several panels had fallen off the ceiling and blood was splattered all over the walls. Many electronics had been ripped to shreds and sparks where dangerously coming from the lights, papers and documents stained in dried blood were discarded all over the floor and the stench of death was unbearable.  
Carefully Lapis began walking through the many hallways, the experiments in this area must have been horrific if it made this many test subjects rampage so violently. By the state it was in, it was safe to assume that this was where it all started.  
Lapis continued being careful and checked the holes in the ceiling regularly in-case of ambushes, but everywhere she turned it was just dust and blood.

She clicked on the walkie talkie and decided to ask Peridot about it herself.  
"Peridot, do you know how many monsters there are?"

A few seconds later and Peridot responded, "Around about one hundred test subjects at any given time, but I'm sure that half of the 'monsters' you're on about were just like you and me." Lapis's stomach lurched when she seen a limp arm that nearly looked identical to Peridot's. It looked like it was torn off and it lay limply over some rubble, perhaps she was trying to defend herself in her final moments.  
"Why are you asking?"

"There's no life on the second floor, it's just… death…" Lapis finally developed a stomach to reply as she looked away from the… other… Peridots arm.

"Then I guess the clones never survived, and it explains what happened to the researchers." Lapis heard Peridots voice again from the walkie talkie, she needed to get out of this area, there was no way Pearl was here. "Look on the bright side! Now we know that there is less than fifty or so monsters!"

Peridot was Not helping.

"I don't think she's this far into the base, I'm returning." Lapis sighed.

Just as Lapis turned to leave and go down the stairs to the third level, she heard someone running behind her. She turned and seen some movement in the darkness. Peridot was saying something to her but she quickly clicked the radio off and carelessly dropped it. She bit her lip, the radio will have to stay on the floor for now.  
"Wait!" She called after the figure and began running, she followed them across the table and chairs blocking her way and took corners that they took, but it was no use. She had lost them as soon as they took a right turn in the maze like area, Lapis tried catching her breath and muttered curses as she continued on down the hall.  
'Where?-' Some creaking and heavy foot steps answered her question. She sharply took the corner and jumped over a fallen chair, she caught another glance at the figure.

"Please Wait!" Lapis called out to them again, but she was slowly regretting her rash judgement. The figure couldn't have been Pearl, much too big. But it couldn't have been an experiment, they weren't this smart.  
Lapis ran round a corner, she had to stop running and catch her breath. The figure was gone once again and more of those red, paint-hands were plastered to the walls and floors. 'Too many hands...' Lapis creeped down the hallway, she already knew that she was lost and this was the only thing that knew it's way around. She raised her torch again, she had cornered the figure and she needed to know what it was, **who** it was.

Lapis went cold when she seen the figure in the light. It wasn't human. A devious fusion experiment was in front of her, grinning wildly and multiple eyes glaring. It looked like a spider. Each tangled limb had a broken hand painfully keeping them standing on bleeding finger tips, the skin was peeled back slightly and the bones protruded through, several of the hands had paint coating them. 'No.' Lapis corrected herself, '...blood.'  
It wore a ragged hospital gown, torn at the edges and covered in grime. 'MAL-0613' pasted on it.

It was a **project**.

A project like **Lapis**...

A **failed** project...

She heard another figure run past her and she glanced back. It was long enough for the monster to creep up the walls and hide in the ceiling, successfully escaping to kill her off later.  
It was the spider and Lapis was caught in it's web.

Lapis heard the running again.

She was going to die.

Before she knew it something smacked into her side and she was thrown to the floor.


	7. Chapter 7 - Reunion

Lapis gasped as something pinned her down to the floor. It was too dark to see anything and her torch was a meter away, out of her reach. She tried looking up but couldn't see what it was. Lapis flinched when she felt movement and closed her eyes in preparation for death, any moment now and she wold be torn apart, limb from limb, like that other Peridot.  
But she was met with a light that flashed into her face.

"Lapis?!" She heard and a second later she was tugged into a death grip of a hug. Lapis couldn't believe it, she was in too much shock to react. 'It's her voice, her hug, even the faint smell of perfume lingering was hers.'

"Pearl!" She finally hugged back, she heard the taller girl whimper and she instantly flinched away.

As if by miracle, the flickering light turned on and she finally seen her again.

Her clothes where torn and she had some fabric wrapped around her arm, a faint trail of blood seeped out of it. She had bruises and scratches everywhere and her once immaculate hair was messy and angled in different directions.  
"Lapis?" Pearls blue eyes frowned at her in confusion as she watched Lapis's tears roll down her cheeks, but the shorter girl just grinned,

"I'm- I'm so happy!" She tried wiping the tears away and was soon joined by an also bubbling Pearl.  
Lapis chuckled, they were just two cry babies that were tired of acting tough.

Finally sniffing one last time and hugged Pearl again with a blush, Lapis stood them up and picked up her torch.

"Come on. Let's go home…" She held out her hand to Pearl and she took it without hesitation.

Lapis kept glancing at her now and again, squeezing her hand softly sometimes. 'She's real… She's here…' In one of the short glances, Pearl had glanced at her. She smiled when their eyes met and the shorter girl lightly blushed. Lapis then remembered about the walkie talkie she left near the staircase.  
Garnet was not going to be happy knowing that her radio was lost somewhere in a creepy lab.  
"How did you get here?" Lapis asked Pearl, mostly due to curiosity, but also due to wanting to pass the time other than in complete silence.

"Long story? or in summary?" She asked,

"Long please." Lapis smiled, she never even left Pearl for that long, just a little over a day or so, and she realised how much she missed her.

"Well…" Pearl began, "I got back and looked at Peridot's documents on the laptop… She never found out, did she?" Pearl paused,

"No, your laptop was locked and we decided not to unlock it," Lapis replied and she heard Pearl sigh in relief,

"Anyway, I was reading until I heard something knocking on the basement door-"

"And you opened it?" Lapis gave her an accusing glare,

"…Well…" Pearl flustered and Lapis groaned, "look, I wanted to know and I-"

"You need to take care of yourself Pearl!" Lapis huffed, "I don't want to see you get hurt or worse! dead!"

She heard Pearl sigh, "I opened it and there was nothing there."

Lapis glanced at her again and tightened her hold of her hand, she blushed lightly when her hand was squeezed back.

"I went into the basement and turned the lights on… Still nothing… Then…" Pearl shivered slightly, "Then everything went dark and I was dragged back into the tank where I found you. I managed to escape that monster with all the paint ... escaped a few more 'experiments'... ran into a room filled with computers and there I was cornered by fusions after we spoke on the phone. I had to run down here and then I got lost again."

"You don't have a sense of direction I take it." Lapis grinned,

"Wha- I have an excellent sense of direction!" Pearl replied,

"That you do."

Lapis looked at her surroundings and realised something in that moment, she had absolutely no clue where she was. Pearl was down here for who knows how long and it was scary to think that they may never find their way out. 'I may have been out long ago if I never dropped that stupid device!' She mentally slapped herself.

"Lapis?" Pearl gained her attention and she hummed at her, "You don't know where to go either… Don't you?" She looked back ahead at that and slowly nodded, it was best to tell her the truth rather than lie about it. Pearl sighed but never said any more.

They kept moving forward, past the many bodies of clones and broken furniture. Lapis glanced at Pearl again, she was out of breath and was pale, her eyes were closing faintly and each blink she took lasted longer. 'She hasn't rested or eaten anything all day, not to forget she's bleeding out...' Looking around and pointing her torch in darkened areas, Lapis looked into the observation windows of the brightened rooms and actually found one that provided some clean beds.  
"Let's stop for a moment." She said, leading the non-protesting Pearl towards the room. Once they were inside, Lapis closed the door behind them, turned the lights off and sat Pearl down onto the bed furthest from the door. If that project did show up, they could at least have some protection.

"I never knew they had any beds here…" Pearl chuckled breathlessly, she was trying to be light-hearted about her dire situation and it made Lapis frown more.

She put down her bag and pulled out some bandages but realised she didn't have anything to clean the wounds with, the last thing Pearl needed was an infection. Glancing round the room Lapis noticed some cabinets across from them, various unopened syringes and bottles upon bottles of liquids were organised on the shelves inside. She searched the cabinets filled with chemicals until she found some alcohol, it was a terrible idea using it, but Lapis already made her decision when she heard Pearl cough behind her. She glanced to the injured girl, she had already began shivering from the cold now that she had cooled down from all the running and adrenalin. There was still a drop left in the strange plastic bottle and she returned to Pearl.

"This is going to hurt…" Lapis warned.

"Oh please," Pearl flicked her wrist, "I survived worse." Lapis didn't want to think too deeply about that.

Opening the alcohol bottle and untying the fabric that clung around a deep cut, she carefully poured the liquid over the wounds.

"I'm sorry," Lapis sighed,

"I'm alright, it's not really that bad," Pearl then winced, "Okay, maybe it is a little sore."

"No… I mean about leaving you…" Lapis pressed a handkerchief into the cut and began tightly wrapping the bandage. "I should have went back with you, I wanted to! But… I needed to know more from Peridot, and you needed some space…"

"It's alright," Pearl made the bandage a little tighter and they brushed hands, "I should never have opened that door. Amethyst was right… I'm always pinning the blame on something else, but now that I see that I know that it was my fault-"

"No it wasn't!" Lapis couldn't help but interrupt her and finally tell her what she really thought. "it's me... I'm the problem. Before me, you had a normal life, and it was slowly getting better despite the death… But I- I took that from you…" Lapis finished the bandage with a tight knot and stood up from the bed, "I made your life miserable…"

Lapis couldn't bare to look at her. Pearl didn't deserve this, she was far too good to get involved in this mess. Lapis focused on the cabinets until she heard some creaking of the bed before she suddenly felt two long arms wrap round her. Keeping her close and giving her a tight hug.

"You made me happy again, **genuinely** happy again." She heard Pearl say from behind her and she felt her heart lurch, "I'm so glad that I know you… and nothing is your fault for any of this..."

'I can't!-'

"Do- do you still have your phone on you?" Lapis interrupted her, she wanted to change the subject. 'I can't do this to Pearl. She deserves much more…' Pearl slowly let her go, it was supposed to be a harmless, simple action... But it **hurt**. Lapis felt as bad as she did on those metal tables and it was for a completely different reason. Lapis had to keep herself from either crying, hugging Pearl back, apologising or doing everything at once. She stayed stoic. She had to be.

They slowly, almost awkwardly, sat back down onto the bed, Lapis slyly watched Pearl reach for her pocket and pull out her phone from her jeans. She jolted slightly when Pearl placed the phone into her hands.

"It's ran out of charge so-"

"I have the charger." Lapis sharply took a breath, she knew it would come in use at some point. She ignored the strange look Pearl gave her as she plugged the phone into the socket. They never said anything for a few minutes, Lapis glanced at Pearl. She looked flustered, uncomfortable and nervous, Lapis stomach flipped in the realisation that she was the one that caused it.

"I... Umm..." Lapis forced out and blushed slightly once she gained Pearls attention, the tall girl had brightened up nearly instantaneously. It was as if she was eager to please or correct whatever mistake she made, Lapis frowned a little, she didn't have to 'correct' anything, she didn't do anything wrong.

"Yes?" She asked and Lapis realised that she was just staring at her since she got her attention.

"I have food and water..." Lapis tore herself away and pulled out several things from the backpack, placing them onto the bed. "You need to have something."

"I suppose..."

Lapis watched Pearl pick up a bottle of water, she opened it slowly and sipped it as elegantly as she drank her tea. Lapis blushed and looked away. 'when did I become like this? What's wrong with me?' She looked into the bag and seen the small box of berry tea that Amethyst forced her to take, 'better now then never...' Lapis took it out and looked back to Pearl just as she was closing the bottle of water again.

"I, I took the tea with me-" 'stop being insecure!' Lapis cleared her throat and started to speak a little more confidently, "I don't know why, Amethyst forced me to take it."

"Oh?" Pearl picked the box up and smiled lightly, "I don't think we can drink it here... But at least it smells nice." She opened the box slightly and calmed down, the smell of berries graced Lapis's nose. She could feel her muscles ease. "Calming isn't it?" Pearl smiled, "This is why it's my favourite... It also reminds me of..."

"Rose." Lapis breathed out predictively,

"Well... yes but-" Pearl blushed a little and put the box onto the bed, "I was going to say you."

"W-what? Me?" Lapis slightly tilted her head,

"I mean, Rose didn't introduce me to the tea..." Pearl huffed, "sure she made me try some... Rose tea of all things-" She cut herself off, "anyway! What I'm saying is, it reminds me of when we met."

"You mean when you rescued me?" Lapis sighed sadly, suddenly feeling powerless.

"But you're rescuing me now, aren't you?" Pearl chuckled and Lapis felt her cheeks grow a tinge warmer.

When the screen lit up, Lapis unlocked it and went into her contacts. As she tried to find Amethysts number, she found **hers**.  
"Pearl?" Lapis began looking at the name, "why do you have her number?"

"Who's?" Pearl asked her and looked onto the phone's screen, Lapis heard her hold her breath. "I- I never got round to removing it-"

"Pearl," Lapis put a hand over hers, "you know that she can't call you back… I don't want to force you but... It'll be easier on you if you let her go…" Pearl clasped her hand in reply and took the phone from her.

"I- I…" She started to take deep breaths 'Not good! Not good!' The alarm bells rang in Lapis's head,

"You can…" Lapis tried to smile softly, "because the Pearl I see, can do anything."

Pearl entwined their fingers together with a light blush, she was about to pull away when Lapis quickly clasped her hand reassuringly. Pearl looked at her with slight surprise and then looked back to the phone in her hand. With a deep breath, she tapped the screen.

 **'DELETE.'**

Lapis heard her slowly exhale she looked almost lost and tinges of regret played upon her face. Lapis took the phone off Pearl and set it to the side, catching her empty hand that was still clutching at the phantom phone, and entwined their fingers.  
"You can do anything Pearl," Lapis said, "You can even let her go."

Pearl nodded with a light blush and Lapis knew this was her cue to pull away. "Thanks." She heard the tall girl say.  
Unfortunately, the phone wasn't quite forgiving with her as there was no signal to call anyone. She put the phone down again and stood up.

Lapis put the bottle of alcohol into her bag, along with the rest of her supplies. Pearl watched her curiously and said nothing, 'There was nothing that needed to be said,'. Changing the worn-out batteries in her torch, Lapis absent-mindedly handed Pearl her shirt.  
"You really are well prepared." She heard her remark and Lapis blushed at the comment, trying not to stare at the wounds dotted through out Pearls body as she changed into the shirt. Which she found quite difficult to do.

"Get some rest Pearl," Lapis gently pushed her down onto her back. "You need it."

"Will you promise to be here when I wake up?" Pearl tried to look at her through tired eyes,

"I promise." Lapis gently smiled and covered her with a blanket. "and thanks… For everything…"

Pearl smiled and held her hand out to Lapis, she took it with no hesitation.

"Do you... Um..." Pearl tried, "Do you want to sleep beside me?" she shyly asked with a faint blush. Once again Lapis felt her own cheeks heat up, "I-I mean, you must be tired too and the other beds are covered in blood or broken or way too close to the door... and we could potentially die at any moment-"

"No one's going to die Pearl."

"I know but-" She was interrupted as Lapis climbed onto the bed beside her. The tall girl shuffled over slightly and Lapis joined her under the blanket. 'This is stupid, what if that spider project comes back? It'll kill us!-' Lapis took a deep breath.

"It'll be just like in the house, or at Peridots... We'll make it out this place." She forced herself to smile, to lie to herself with a shaky voice. She gasped as Pearl instantly cuddled her with a grin, Lapis softly smiled when they parted.  
They held onto each others hands again and softly drifted off to sleep.

'If I die. I won't mind dying with you...'


	8. Chapter 8 - Nightmare

Lapis opened her eyes and found herself far too close to Pearl. Her long, pale arms were wrapped around her and kept her pinned. Lapis blushed when Pearl buried her head some more into her neck, 'is she... kissing me?' Lapis tensed each time lips ghosted over her neck, she swallowed shyly and it just spurred Pearl on more. 'NOPE! I am NOT doing this! She's probably dreaming of Rose and I don't want to be involved in it!' Lapis shuffled and pushed away from the taller girl, her blush becoming heavier with Pearl's small sounds of protest.

The room was quiet and dark. Just how Lapis left it.

She sat up and stretched from her short sleep, 'The others must be worried sick, I need to find that radio…' Standing up with a silent huff, Lapis walked over to the cabinets again and decided to investigate the chemicals whilst she was waiting for Pearl to wake up. The first bottle she picked up was green, the writing was smudged and she couldn't make out what it was. Lapis put it back for now. The other bottles had similar labels or stated it's contents, most of which where things that she couldn't even pronounce if she tried. There was a few blue bottles, such as 'Painkiller' and 'Undefined'.  
One word did stand out though. She picked up a red bottle and red the bold letters. 'ACID'. It looked quite strong too, as there were other stickers of skulls and hazards pasted onto the bottle. 'Could be useful.' She put the bottle into the pocket at the side of the bag, it slid right in nicely and could easily be taken out in case of an emergency.  
Carefully picking up the packet of unopened syringes. It was completely sterile and unopened.

There was no need for any sort of medical, nightmare equipment at the moment.

Lapis sighed and left the cabinets, she looked back at Pearl and crossed her arms. She never wanted to wake her up, but the sick feeling in her gut of leaving the others and losing the walkie talkie plagued her. 'She's been through a lot...' 'But we need to get out of here.' 'I don't want to wake her.' 'I need to wake her.'  
She sighed and opted on giving Pearl a few more minutes, the began looking round the room lazily. The door was closed like usual.

Being insanely curious, Lapis opened it carefully and looked out into the hall cautiously, she never knew what could be around the corner and she still couldn't decide if the lights where a blessing or a curse. Lapis looked down the hall with the low hanging light, it flickered slightly but it was still intact. She suddenly felt very scared, she watched the light with intensity and froze once it moved slightly. She sighed, 'It's just the ventilation system, everything's-'.

 **"CRASH!"**

The girl jumped and looked where she had heard the noise, it was as if another large fusion had waltzed into yet another ceiling fan x10. The sound of running then came from the hall with that one flickering light she was staring at, whipping her head back Lapis swore she saw a shadow run by before the light cut out.  
She was faced with a dilemma. Pearl wasn't awake yet and there was an evil, murderous project roaming the halls. Lapis returned to the room and locked the door behind her, trying to catch her breath at what just happened, 'I'm going crazy. Nothing is down there! The experiment is gone, we're **safe**!'

A sound of pain was heard and Lapis looked back to Pearl who was clutching the blankets and whimpering. Lapis ran up to her and caught her as she bolted awake, she softly petted her hair and rocked her gently, whispering reassurances into her ear.  
"It's fine… I'm here." Lapis told her repeatedly,

Pearl calmed down quickly and blushed, "I'm sorry, I'm fine now."

Although she never wanted to, Lapis let go of her and gave her some space. With some strange compulsion, Lapis glanced at the window and paled when she seen a twisted leer in the glass. It was the same four glowing green eyes, white hair and a wicked grin as before, hands scratched against the glass and left the same bloody residue. She gasped and the figure that was there quickly blended back into the darkness.

"What's wrong?" Pearl weakly asked as she quickly sat up, Lapis guessed she was eager not to fall asleep anytime soon.

"It's- It's nothing…" Lapis replied, she was definitely losing her sanity in the place and the sooner she got out the better. "How are you?" she looked back to the still shaken Pearl.

"I'm fine, it's just a nightmare…" Lapis never liked that answer, she knew that this nightmare Pearl had wasn't a recent thing. She remembers Pearl bolting awake on many occasions but they never spoke about it in detail or even mention it until now.

"Pearl, you don't look fine..." and it was true, she was pale, paler than usual. Her slender fingers were playing at the fabric of her bandaged arm, clawing at it as if it was not part of herself. "I can't let you strain yourself... You might have an infection or-"

"Don't stop me." Pearl tried standing but she winced in pain. "I don't want to stay in this place..."

"Believe me, I don't either." Lapis pushed Pearl back into the bed, "But you need to get better first."

Pearl grumbled, "try and find something in that cabinet then... There should be at least some painkiller... I mean, you found alcohol there right?"

Lapis gave her a confident nod and walked back to the stacks upon stacks of chemicals. 'I seen some Painkillers here... Where is it?!' Slowly everything seemed to get more organised; the smudged labels were on most of the long green bottles, Lapis had no idea what it was but it didn't sound good. Some untested medicines were in the brown bottles, they could have been poisons for all she knew. Then she found the blue bottles. It said on the label that it was a painkiller, 'this could help Pearl... but should I give it to her? It might be anything for all I know.' Lapis took the bottle and grumbled when she discovered it was a liquid.

"What's wrong?" Pearl muttered from the bed,

"It's a liquid... It say's it's a painkiller but..." Lapis turned back to her, "It should be those small things that you swallow... It said that in the book I read."

"Does it have a name?" Pearl asked,

Lapis just passed her the bottle, she didn't want to risk the embarrassment of not being able to pronounce whatever was written there.

"Morphine. it's a painkiller you have to inject." Pearl informed her, she looked a little happy when she seen the medicine.

"How does an underground base have this stuff?" Lapis asked,

"You have to remember that whoever is in charge of this place is a **company**... They must deliver supplies regularly." The tall girl then shivered and cradled her bandaged arm slightly.

"Will it help you?" Lapis took the syringe packet and sat beside Pearl.

"Probably."

'Well, that's just perfect.'

"It's the closest we can get to any sort of medicine. There's nothing else labeled 'painkiller' there," Lapis explained,

"Just follow the leaflet instructions and do it." Pearl huffed a little and displayed her arm.

Lapis did not like this one bit. She was intentionally doing things slowly, but that didn't stop the inevitable dizziness she had when she had to actually stick the needle in. Pearl had given her the perfect spot, the vein was visible and clean.  
"I don't think I can do this Pearl."

"Please?" Pearl gritted her teeth, pain was in her eyes.'She's begging me...' "My arm really hurts."

Lapis gulped, slowly breathing out she stuck the needle into Pearl's arm. She froze when Pearl took a sharp breath, but the ice she made around herself was melted away when Pearl softly put her hand onto Lapis's,  
"You're doing great, just push it in a little more..." It was Lapis's turn to take a sharp breath as she felt the needle pierce through the vein wall. Like a puppet she followed Pearl's fingers and inject the medication. She felt relief flush over her when she pulled the syringe out and left it abandoned on one of the tables.

Pearl's breathing slowed down gradually and her face turned into a relaxed one. In a way, so did Lapis's

"Better?" Lapis asked hopefully,

"Much." Pearl replied.

After waiting a little longer for the pain to pass. Lapis picked up her bag and flashlight, she felt confident in going back out into the corridor with the acid (a new weapon) at her disposal. But despite her confidence, she still couldn't help but hold Pearl's hand.  
It definitely wasn't because of that monster in the glass…  
She sighed,'Why am I lying to myself?'  
Lapis squeezed Pearl's hand and smiled slightly when Pearl squeezed back.

"We came down from that hall," Lapis pointed the light to the now broken light that hung by the cables, she tried to forget about the running figure. "Should we back-track?"

"Then we won't make any progress," Pearl replied, "Do you have a pen?" Lapis blinked at the strange question, she was sure that there was a pen already in the bag she was using. 'I really have to thank Pearl for letting me use it now that I think about it.' Rummaging in one of the pockets, Lapis was surprised to find a black marker.  
"Perfect!" Pearl tutted and took it from her,

"Why do you need a marker?" She asked her and watched as she took the cap off. She wondered if that medicine she took earlier was affecting her.

"To mark, obviously…" Pearl replied, she turned to the wall and drew a giant 'X' on the wall. "Now we'll know if we've been here before…" Pearl then drew a '1' just below it and an arrow pointing to where they just planned on going.

"Why the number?" Lapis asked, "and the arrow?"

"It's in case we come back here again, we will know that it's the first mark and that we went this way." Pearl shut the pen and put it into her jean pocket, "Let's keep going."

They made about three of those marks before Lapis felt something terribly wrong.  
She kept looking over her shoulder the entire journey and they kept hearing creaking metal and the sounds of something falling and thudding. They tightened their grip of each others hands as they continued down the hall.

"Were these sounds always so frequent?" Lapis asked Pearl,

"Not really, at first it only happened once in a while," Pearl replied.

They took a corner and discovered an older mark that they drew on the wall, it was progress knowing that they went round in a big circle. However they never remembered smearing the mark with paint. Lapis shivered when she thought back to that spider-monster... It was toying with them.

"Oh no…" Pearl shuddered, "Is it that paint monster again? Has it caught up to me?"

"That's impossible, Amethyst locked it in a room upstairs." Lapis felt the paint, it was just recently applied. "Let's keep close, we're not alone and what ever did this is now following us." She wasn't sure why she didn't tell Pearl of that experiment, perhaps she didn't want to scare her. Perhaps it was the fact that the experiment was just like her.  
Pearl nodded in agreement and they began moving again.

Lapis recognised the familiar hanging light and realised that she was going directly where the figure she had seen went, she shivered at the memory.  
"Don't worry." Pearl squeezed her hand, it was as if she knew that this is what Lapis needed to hear, "we're in this together." Lapis smiled and kept pushing forward. It wasn't long until they understood what the sounds they were hearing were.

They glared at the hole in the floor, Lapis could faintly make out another room underneath. 'That must be the third floor.' She crept past it cautiously.

"Looks like the floors giving out…" Pearl muttered, "something is pulling it down."

"What…" Lapis just looked at her, "What on earth would make you say something as terrifying as that? You're worse than Peridot!"

"Just think about it," Pearl replied, "This place was over-run with the test subjects recently, because Peridot told us that she was working here recently." Lapis grumbled her agreement, "and if she was working here recently, you wouldn't expect the whole base to collapse!"

Lapis groaned, "You're right…" Pearl smiled her usual 'I know more' way and tutted a little. It was still as adorable as the first time she witnessed it.

Continuing to dodge the holes in the floor, Lapis's eyes lit up when she seen her radio lying on the table. Without thinking she ran up to it and let go of Pearl's hand.  
"Lapis?!" The taller called out to her in surprise.

Lapis picked the device up, instantly switching the walkie talkie on and began to speak,  
"Hello?!" She tried, "Hello?!"

"Lapis?! What happened? Are you Okay?!" She heard Peridot's voice,

"I'm fine." Lapis smiled and looked at Pearl with a smile, "I found her, she's with me."

"That's great, get up here and start making your way back." Garnet said,

Before she could give a reply the floor gave way under Pearl.

The world seemed to go into slow-motion as Lapis noticed the shock and fear in Pearl's eyes, her outstretched arm aimed at her desperately as four arms dragged her into the darkness of the third floor. She tried to lunge and catch Pearl but something caught her by the bag on her back. She felt a sharp pain on the back of her neck before she could even fight back.

"We meet again… Lapis." A gruff voice was heard as she went limp and dropped the radio.

"Lapis. Respond-" Garnet's voice was cut-off as the device was crushed.

Then the world went dark and Lapis couldn't stop her eyes closing shut.


	9. Chapter 9 - Gone Again

Garnet was on the second floor. It truly was as empty as Lapis said it was, but that wasn't why she came down here.

Lapis was missing.

She briefly remembered Peridot raving over the walkie walkie about how idiotic she was in allowing Lapis to go alone, Garnet also felt guilty of not predicting this.  
She kept marching through the hallways, leaving small marks on walls with a pen she found in her pocket and moved furniture out the way, she also done an excellent job ignoring the blood covering the walls. Times like these she was thankful for being a cop.  
Garnet was about to mark the wall again when she noticed the large 'X' that was drawn there, it was covered in some red paint that she knew wasn't part of the initial mark.

Garnet smiled slightly when she realised that it might lead her right to her missing friends.

Garnet clicked on the radio. "I've found some marks on the walls. I might know where they are."

She was instantly met with celebration "That's GREAT news! Now hurry up and find them so we can get out of here!" now that she thought about it, Peridot may have been patronising her.

Despite the unpleasantries, Garnet continued on with her mission. The marks left behind where noticeable and well spaced out, the only main concern was that the paint covered up what she assumed was an arrow and a number. 'That's definitely Pearls marks.' Garnet hummed as she ran across the fourth one, she shifted her shades slightly and frowned when she realised that the marks led into one big circle.  
Seconds later a loud crashing sound resonated from the halls, whipping her gun out by instinct she ran around the corner, dodging the hanging lamp and embarrassingly almost fell down into a hole in the floor.  
The lower levels were collapsing. That was an undeniable fact that Garnet concluded once she regained her balance and carefully made it over the gaps.

She was lucky to find something shiny from the corner of her eye and once she quickly checked the surroundings for ambushes, she put her gun back onto her hip and bent down.

The object in her hand was none other than a phone. Specifically, Pearl's phone. She could recognise that waterfall background on the main screen and the immaculate condition it was in to be Pearls phone anytime. 'But why is it here?' Garnet looked around the room, finding a staircase to her right and something else on the floor nearby a toppled desk. She picked it up and recognised it as the shattered remains of the walkie talkie she gave Lapis. 'That explains why she hasn't been answering…' Garnet sighed and clicked on her radio again,  
"I found Pearl's phone and Lapis's walkie talkie, the phone's in good condition but I can't unlock it. The walkie talkie is completely broken."

A few beeps later and Peridot responded, "Do you have any idea where they could have went?"

Garnet swept the area and looked at the holes in the floor, she stuck her torch down one of them and discovered the third floor along with the unmoving body of what she guessed was a fusion.  
She stood up again and responded with some concern, "I think they both fell into the third floor."

She heard Peridot sigh, "Right listen closely, the third floor is much smaller than the others. So it'll be easy to find them. But we have a problem up here." Garnet continued to listen into the conversation as Peridot momentarily paused, "The test subject up here are getting closer to the exit, Amethyst has managed to lock a few into some rooms but it doesn't seem to be working anymore. So I say we 'pull the plug'."

Garnet hummed. She remembered her colleagues using a similar phrase, it meant to terminate something or to abandon a mission. "So, there's a self-destruct button."

"Not exactly a button per se…" Peridot replied, "think of it as more like a few highly unstable wires that need to be crossed so that the thick cables lining the structures blow up. Literally. I'm sure you can manage."

Garnet paused, she had been joking on her previous statement. "This isn't going to work."

"No it will, trust me on this one."

"I'm concerned about the safety of Beach City."

"What is there to be concerned about?" Peridot groaned, "It'll look like an earthquake and it won't harm anyone in the slightest!"

"That's exactly what I'm concerned about!"

"Look! we don't have time to argue! It's either we destroy this place or we let the monsters loose in Beach City!" Garnet grumbled and started walking to the staircase, this was completely out of her control.

"Fine. We'll do it your way."

"Thank you!" Peridot replied, Garnet could hear the relief in her voice, "You blow the place up and me and Amethyst will try to lure more of them away from the exit! We'll be waiting up here for you!"

"Roger." Garnet then cliched the radio off as she began descending down the rusty stairs, cringing at the sound it made with each step.

The third floor was the darkest area of the entire facility. It was so dark that Garnet had removed her shades just so that she could assess how dark it really was.  
Her conclusion? It was really, really dark.  
She aimed her torch skyward and seen the holes in the ceiling, this definitely was where they would have fallen. 'But why didn't they go up the stairs? If they did already go up stairs, why didn't they pick up their communication gadgets.' Garnet grumbled again, 'Perhaps that fusion had something to do with it.' However when she aimed her torch where she last seen the experiment, there was nothing but rubble. 'Definitely concerning, definitely nightmare-fuel.'

Garnet rested her hand on her gun, this time for sure she would fire.

The walk through the dark was surprisingly quiet… Too quiet… the only sound she recognised was of her boots walking over glass that had broken off tanks, as well as the puddles of green water. Garnet doubted that it was even water at all that filled those tanks.  
She soon found a small dark room with a single lit monitor. There was also someone there... A large figure standing in front of the light, far too big to be Lapis or Pearl, was typing away on the dusty keyboard.  
"Get away from that monitor" Garnet ordered, keeping her gun aimed at all times.

She watched the figure slowly turn round and seen a pair of glowing yellow eyes staring at her... Well, they weren't glowing but Light brown eyes **that** yellow was definitely not normal.  
"I should be telling you that police woman." The figure grinned, her voice was raspy and strained. Malicious intent was oozing out of them.

"Step away! I won't repeat myself!" Garnet stepped closer slowly, her trained arms unmoving.  
She watched the figure step to the side and Garnet circled them. The figure was a tall and incredibly strong looking woman with white hair, though it may be just a very light blonde. The woman had many scars covering her and had a prominent scar across her face.

"You don't ask a lot of questions for a cop." She grinned, "I guess you followed your little friends then? I'm surprised that a group as weak as yours was able to survive this long despite forgetting everything."

Garnet clenched her jaw, she had no clue what the lunatic was spouting.

"Then again, you wouldn't remember wouldn't you? After what Rose done." Garnet moved her arms slightly and kept her gun aimed at her head, she was prepared to take lethal action. "So tell me, how is Rose Quartz?"

"I'm not obligated to answer." Garnet replied,

"And yet you won't shoot me," The woman chuckled, "she made you weak… But I suppose you're keeping me alive for some reason."

"Start talking." Garnet grumbled,

"About?"

"Everything."

"I don't have to do a thing you say."

Garnet was suddenly punched and her gun was aiming towards the ceiling. She grunted as she was pinned by the larger girl.  
"Just because you have a gun, doesn't mean I will bow down to you. We were made to survive explosions! A gunshot will only be a scratch." The police woman winced as she was punched in the stomach.  
That was enough for her to snap back into the fighter she was.

"Then you won't mind being shot." Garnet replied as she regained her focus and kicked her in the leg, hooked round her knee and flipped them, whacking the woman with her gun to free her hands again, Garnet aimed the barrel directly to her face.  
"Start talking, and if I don't like your answer I'll shoot."

"Then before you shoot, why don't you take a look at that monitor?" The woman grinned maniacally, "I know you want to…"

Despite all her will-power, Garnet ended up glancing at the screen. It was a slide-show presentation of numerous profiles, some had an odd sense of nostalgia with them, like the profiles of two rather short women. She was surprised to see profiles of people that she knew, the people she worked with and her neighbours.

Her head started to hurt intensely when she seen a few profiles with a red 'TERMINATED' written over their faces. It was as if she seen it before, like something was forcing her to remember a nightmare that you forget once you bolt awake.

Finally she seen their own profiles.

'IN PROGRESS' was flashing on the screen on everyone's faces...

"I'll make you remember."

But Pearl's and Lapis's had a slightly darker text, blinking quickly as if it was about to change to...

"They would make a good fusion, wouldn't they?"

 **...'TERMINATED.'**


	10. Chapter 10 - Torment

Lapis winced as she woke up. 'I'm okay?' At first she didn't know what to think of her situation... She tried moving her arms and legs, shivering at the cold metal she was lying on.

Then panic set in. She struggled against the restraints, trying to pull her wrists free with such strength that she drew blood. Everything that she experienced until she was knocked out flooded into her head, a pit of anxiety sat in her stomach, eating away at her on the inside. Remembering Pearl's face as that monster pulled her into the darkness.  
She felt sick. Her throat dry and her palms sweaty. 'If only I told her about it! I could have prevented all of this!' She whimpered and started to feel the sting of her bleeding hands, '...I'm the cause of her suffering.'

"Lapis!" She heard a voice from the other side of the room, "Lapis calm down!" Turning her head she seen Pearl in the same situation. "It'll be alright, just take some deep breaths."  
Lapis almost bursted out crying. She didn't know why Pearl was here, she didn't know how, frankly she never cared. Pearl was alright and that's what mattered most.

Taking the deepest breath she could imagine, Lapis started to calm herself down gradually and looked round the room. It was dark and she could barely see the various machines and instruments on the table to her right. She heard the sound of some sort of liquid and with a glance up she questioned how she never noticed the large tank near the wall, thick cables connected it to a few monitors and computers. '.' was printed on the side of the tank.  
Lapis looked back to Pearl again, she seemed to be okay and was also looking about. Something glistened underneath her table though, Lapis gulped when she seen numerous robotic arms with needles all aiming towards Pearl's back.  
Now that she noticed the bizarre contraption, she felt a hole in the table she was lying on.

'If I move, I might get killed by the machines...' not only that, but it appeared that Pearl never noticed it yet.

"Are you okay?" Lapis asked her in attempts to hide her anxiety,

The taller girl turned her head and looked back at her, "I'm okay. How did you get down here?"

"I was knocked unconscious by someone…"

"Same…" Pearl sighed and wriggled a bit in her bindings. "Well... No. More like a 'something' rather than a 'someone'."

"I'm sorry." Lapis said,

"For what?" Pearl asked curiously, her shuffling ceased,

"For everything-"

"We already spoke about this Lapis..." Pearl sighed softly, "nothing is your fault..."

"No. That thing that you where attacked by... I knew about it and I never told you."

"You're sorry about that?" Pearl chuckled, "Lapis, I already knew of it. It was the 'paint monster' that I've been going on about all this time!"

Lapis raised an eyebrow quizzically, 'How was that spider-thing a 'paint monster'? If anything it would be the monster that Amethyst locked up.'  
"I don't understand."

"What other experiment is smart enough to lure us here?"

Lapis stayed silent at that. She didn't want to think about the possibility that it was watching them the whole time, it was scary. Yet, like an unopened door or the glowing mouth of the cave it was irresistible.  
'Perhaps it used the paint before taking Pearl.' 'Perhaps it planned the whole thing.' 'Perhaps it was the one that closed the basement door when we found the paint can.' The thoughts didn't stop.

The sounds of shuffling persisted, Pearl was adamant to get out her predicament safely... Unlike Lapis, who had already hurt herself within seconds of waking up.

The silence was interrupted when heavy footsteps began coming down the hall.

"H-how do we get out of here?!" Lapis instantly asked, her panic escalating gradually,

"Well making yourself bleed won't solve anything!" Pearl muttered, she was rattled and her voice showed that she was scared. Lapis watched her start looking about and frowned when Pearl started to pull on the leather strap of the table. She was about to ask why but then realised that the bolt keeping the leather together was creaking and the strap was breaking. Lapis continued to watch Pearl pull on the strap and with a loud snap her hand was free. Only one hand was needed for her to quickly undo all her restraints.  
The footsteps grew louder as Pearl rushed over. Lapis held her breath once she couldn't hear the rhythmic thumps anymore.

As Pearl (un-fazed by the sudden lack of sound) began to work on Lapis's bindings she was overcome with pain.

Lapis paled as she watched a large girl pick Pearl up menacingly. She wondered how she never managed to see a figure so big slip into the room without any warning.  
"Close one, I forgot how sneaky you where…" Her gruff voice said, "But I know a place you won't escape, ever again."  
Lapis watched Pearl try to fight back, but it was all in vain as she was dropped into a tank. Lapis panicked as the figure pressed a button on one of the monitors hooked up to the tank, a few seconds later the machines inside the tank were turned on and began piercing into Pearl repeatedly, as if prodding her for information. Her screams were muffled by the green liquid of the tank. "Welcome Home." The woman laughed.

The figure turned and glared at Lapis. She felt a shiver run through her and her fists clenched as the tall woman walked up to her.

"… You… I never expected to see you alive…" She was now right next to her, ominously beside the medical instruments. "you should join me Lapis… With your powers we can make an army stronger than anything! After all, it's what you were made for."

"How do you know who I am?!" Lapis asked her, she watched in horror as the woman began to 'play' with the medical instruments.

"I'm surprised you don't remember," The gruff voice muttered, "what is up with your little group forgetting everything…"

"How do you know me?" Lapis asked again, with a little more confidence in her voice.

"I'm Jasper, I worked on project mirror. I worked on you." Her face contorted into a grin, "you were designed to hunt down traitors with unmatched, unique powers... You were the first successful project and I want you to join me."

Lapis paled, her mouth went dry and she couldn't say anything. She had many reasons not to believe this, Jasper, but she was the only one that knew more about the experiments than anyone. Other than Peridot, but she ran away from the base after learning about the fusion experiments.  
"Will you let the others go?"

Jasper leered at that, it reminded Lapis of that monster she seen before. "Those traitors? That would go against your purpose." Lapis frowned and went silent, "come on…" Jasper tried and Lapis glared at her.

"No. Never!"

The grin dropped from the larger woman's face, "I'll force you to join me one way of the other."  
Lapis shuddered as she heard a button being pressed, suddenly she felt the all too familiar pain overwhelm her. The small needles began repeatedly piercing into her skin and the well known burning sensations began. It felt like her insides were melting.

"You'll break at some point…" Jasper grunted and left the room ominously.

—

Lapis winced at the constant surge of pain. That maniac had left and it was only a matter of time before she came back. The injections were finally getting to her, the burning had spread and she could slowly feel her mind cloud.

With some effort she turned her head and seen Pearl's limp body suspended in the tank. She wasn't moving, wasn't fighting or thrashing about anymore. She wasn't making a sound. She looked like... A **corpse**...

All the buttons in her brain where pushed and alarm bells went off. 'I have to get her out of there!'

Looking round the room, she discovered there was no visible water anywhere or any pipes anywhere, 'That Jasper knew about the water! But there's something I **can** do.' and so Lapis cried. Yes, she was being a big crybaby right now, but she was being one with a motive. The tears she formed was enough to control and press the 'stop' button on the metal table. The repeated stabbing of needles on her back stopped along and she sighed slightly, the burning sensation fading away slowly.

Concentrating harder, Lapis managed to break away the leather straps with the small amount of water and she stood up painfully. Her back was in agony as she got onto her feet, glancing round the room properly, she found her bag of supplies on the floor beside the table. Lapis pulled out her bottle of acid and set her bag onto the table she was just on. She tried not to look at the puddle of blood underneath it or the sharp needles.  
Then she went to the tank, Lapis frowned at the controls and groaned.  
She had no clue what to do.  
From the corner of her eye, she seen a small flashing light and upon inspection she grinned when she found a switch with the words 'EMERGENCY STOP' quickly pressing it, the machines powered down and stopped moving. Lapis climbed up the side of the tank and opened the hatch to fish out Pearl, the liquid was cold and although she could control the solution, it wasn't water.

When she managed to grab a hold of her she pulled her out as quickly as she could.

Pearl was limp and cold. Lifeless.

 **She wasn't breathing**.

Before the shock could set in, Lapis heard the door open and expected to see Jasper's grin. Grabbing the acid from the table, Lapis stood protectively in front of Pearl. However, four arms crawled inside and she came face to face with the exact same thing that had pulled them into the basement and trapped them there.

Project 'MAL-0613'

"Why are you doing this?" Lapis asked it, she wasn't sure if it could even understand her. It just kept looking at her with four big green eyes. Lapis would admit that at this moment she broke down.

' **She's gone**.'

The project surprisingly stopped grinning and watched Lapis curiously. The girl had given up. The acid lay abandoned on the floor, the red warning labels slightly peeling as the sides of the bottle rolled against the rough floor.  
Lapis held Pearl close to her chest, crying into her shirt. A shirt that Lapis had given her only a few hours ago.

Pearl never responded.

Lapis was racked with pain and grief at the thought of the comfort she would have given her. She was also filled with guilt.  
'I... I done this...' Lapis shuddered, 'I killed her... I- I denied her any comfort...' Lapis buried her head further into Pearl's freezing shoulder, desperately trying to replicate how adorable Pearl was being back when she was asleep and hoping she would open her eyes one more time.

It never worked.

The **monster** , the **abomination** that caused it all was in front of them. Lapis glared at it as it took a shy step forwards, but her frown washed away as she watched the supposed **monster** , the supposed **abomination**. **Cry**.  
All of it's eyes were sources of waterfalls as it's tears cascaded down it's sad, miserable face.

"W-Why are you crying?!" Lapis's grip on Pearl tightened, "You didn't lose her! You caused all of this!"

The subject recoiled slightly and took a few steps back. It gave Lapis the space that she needed.

"Y-you..." Lapis's voiced wavered and she chocked out another sob.

"Did not... Want this..." Lapis heard a whisper of a voice, she looked up to the experiment curiously. "I wanted... freedom." It said and walked over to a computer, it tapped a few buttons on the creaky keyboard and then backed off slightly.  
Lapis could see some reports written on the screen. She desperately wanted to know what happened, how Jasper knows Pearl, about her own project...

'Pearl would want to know too...'

As gently as she could, Lapis lay Pearl onto the floor and stood up after a parting look. Her knees still shook and her mouth quivered, anticipating another sob or wheeze of breath. She wasn't ready. But she had to be at this moment.  
Limping over to the computer, Lapis scanned over the title. It was an old document on the base '1-1-2-7'. She glanced over at the fusion that was crawling away silently.

"Hey." It stopped and turned to look at her, "What are you?"

"MAL- 0613" It said slowly, it's hands were repeatedly clenching and unclenching.

"I'll forget that easily..." Lapis grumbled, "How about... Malachite?" The 'monster' smiled a little at that.

This time Lapis never stopped **it**... No. She never stopped **her** leave the room. She may still absolutely despise the 'monster' and it will never change, but at least now it won't attack her. 'I hope.'

Lapis read the first few lines, she began to shiver at the pages.

"Oh Pearl..." She muttered, hugging herself. She couldn't force herself to look back. "I'm so sorry."


	11. Chapter 11 - Pearl

It was cold and wet. It always was cold and wet. But that was okay, Pearl had gotten used to it.

She stayed in her tank most times, 'To keep me out the way.' In fact, she liked the security of the tank. It was quiet and the only ever time she was let out it was for scientists poking needles into her or guards hurting her.

Yes, the tank was definitely her safe haven.

"Are you sure?" Pearl turned her head to see two figure walk down the hall.

"What kind of question is that?" The other laughed, "of course I'm sure! For a newbie you really are dense." Pearl recognised this guard as one of the most frequent visitors. Even their voice made her shiver.

She flinched when the figures stopped and pounded on the glass of the tank menacingly. "We keep this one as 'stress-relief' for us guards." The one Pearl recognised explained, "You can beat them as much as you want."

"But why would we be stressed?" The newbie asked, "Project Mirror is going well in the other complex and soon we can start the experiments on the new-"

"Sh!" The senior brought their hand up to the others mouth, effectively shutting her up. "That's confidential! We don't just talk about it anywhere! Besides you should be lucky that a newbie like you would work on such an important progression of science!" The senior then turned back into the tank and Pearl flinched again. "Now shut up and open the hatch!"

She began to panic, escape was unachievable and her safe place was compromised. Pearl gasped as she was flung to the floor and kicked.  
"Remember Jasper," The senior told the newbie, "Strength is all that matters! and pathetic weaklings like this need to be put in their place!"

—

Pearl never fought back against them, she never lifted her head or defended herself. It was the third time today. When they left she was dumped back into the tank and resealed. This was her life.  
Cuddling her knees as she floated within the liquid, Pearl waited for her wounds to heal before she was ready for another beating. That's how it was most days.

However, today was different. She lifted her head and watched the sparks fly off a monitor that she had thought to be broken ever since she was dumped into the tank. She frowned as an image lit onto the screen.  
Pearl quickly pressed herself up to the glass and looked to the door that led into the hall. There was no-one coming and no-one around that could have fixed the object. 'Perhaps it wasn't broken to begin with.' She started to watch the screen and she seen a lady come on, she had large, curly hair that was an un-natural colour of pink. She was beautiful.

The lady then began to speak and Pearl listened as closely as she could through the murky water and thick glass.  
"Hello." The woman began, "You don't know me and many of you won't care to know me. But I want to know you…" 'What on earth is she on about? know me?' Pearl frowned even more, "Many of you are trapped, beaten, broken or just forgotten… But please, you must fight back! I know you must be scared, but the things that the company has planned are terrifying..." The screen began to slowly recede into static, the woman must have noticed the signal weakening and quickly began speaking again. "Please try! Because if you don't you **will** die. I will be waiting outside!-"  
The monitor abruptly turned off and Pearl was stuck again in the darkness of her tank.  
'Fight back?' She looked round the room but seen no way she could make her escape, 'but why? I'm safe here…'

Like always, Pearl was left alone with her thoughts. What was once blank and empty ideas of getting a light beating began to slowly morph into radical ideas or breaking free and making a run for it.

Slowly, but surely, these Ideas began to plague her mind.

Pearl became angry and frustrated with each beating. She had grown sick of recovering in a tank only to be on the verge of death again and again and again.  
She began memorising the way she was beaten and listened to the instructors advice when training the new recruits. Now that she paid attention to it, it was **sickening** how she was used as a practice dummy. But little did they know that one day these tactics will be their end.  
Pearl formulated plans in her head when she was recovering. Like where she would go and what to do incase she was injured. She couldn't possibly go into the tank, they would just hit the switch and kill her in a moments notice. That is if they didn't take her to the dreadful termination machine first.

The door to her room opened with a creak, but she paid no attention to it. The voices sounded similar to the two guards from last night, but she never made any bets that it was them… They all had the same voices. Pearl grunted as she was fished out the liquid and slammed onto the floor, her head was sore and her ears where painfully ringing.  
"Why don't you do the honours?" She recognised the senior look back to that same junior, Jasper, for a moment she hoped that she was different and would save her from what she knew was going to happen. But all they did was grin and throw her to the back wall with a wide punch.

Pearl winced at her busted lip and glared at Jasper, she paid attention to every detail, to how menacingly yellow her eyes were, to how evil her grin had become.  
"What's with that look?" Jasper spat, briefly and uncertainly glancing at her senior, Pearl recognised her as yet another, but much older, Quartz with several scars along their arms.

"Teach her how weak she is." Pearl heard the older one reply before she had all the air knocked out of her, the newbie had begun to punch her repeatedly. Pearl swore that she ruptured something. But she never broke down her glare. 'I don't deserve this.'  
"Not stopping huh?" The older Jasper walked up to them, Pearl could see the ominous glint of the sword in her hand, she watched the blade tip come close to her face and scratch the bridge of her nose, blood began to seep out the wound and Pearl had to spit out the metallic liquid that filled her mouth. "I guess it was time for her to be terminated."

Pearl froze at that, she thought of the horrors that numerous people went through. How they where ripped limb from limb and where still alive, she never knew what they were using the parts for. Some guards that walked by speculated that the scientists were sowing them together, creating fusions that had multiple abilities instead of just one. The scientists that walked by confirmed this suspicion. But one thing Pearl did know, the screams would haunt her for eternity.

She thought she was done for and her gaze dropped defeatedly, but just as they where drawing closer her hand found a long metal pole and wrapped around it.

She balanced on her knees and swung widely. The sharp tip left a large cut on the juniors face and she stepped back, whimpering. The senior wasn't so fortunate, as Pearl lunged at her and the pole pierced right through her chest.  
Pearl grinned as she watched the light die out of her tormentors eyes, spluttering out blood as her lungs filled with it. With a strong pull, Pearl reclaimed the pole and watched them breath their last breath as they choked on their blood.

"You'll pay for this!" The Jasper told her and ran out of the room.

Pearl could laugh right now, a lowly Pearl like her made a guard run in fear! She picked up the sword the was still in the grasp of the dead senior and walked out the room. The walls were plastered with posters and those numbers... '1-1-2-7', the numbers of the complex and her life in a nutshell.

The first turn she made in the pure white hallways and she ran across two Rubies, probably making it back from their break. They stared at her for a moment, in apparent confusion, before they looked at each other.

"Why is the Pearl out?" Pearl could see them reach for their tasers but she never gave them any chances, a swing with the sword and a hit with her pole and the life once in front of her was extinguished.  
'I can't make it out on my own. I need to get to the others before they are terminated!' She quickly snuck by large groups and cut down the different scientists that stood in her way. But she knew that it would be inevitable that someone would see the blood she left behind, the only security she gave herself was that she never stood on any of the blood.

She snuck by a group of Jaspers who where laughing at something, 'that's strange' despite their love of evil grins, Jaspers didn't really laugh all that much… Unless…  
Pearl glanced at them and realised that they where talking to that junior with the large cut. She had now managed to bandage it, although it was very poorly done.  
"I'm not lying! That Pearl!-" She tried desperately.  
Pearl smiled at that, it's obvious that no-one will believe that a Pearl managed to do anything.

Quickly continuing down the hallway, Pearl found the large storage room with many tanks. They were all lined up neatly and glowed the bright green it usually did, she shuddered when she seen a glimpse of the room next door. It was a large metal machine with large circular saws and hooks, 'They treated us like pieces of meat!' Pearl gritted her jaw in disgust as she seen the machine going through its typical maintenance by the scientists.

She ran over to the control panel, well aware of the many curious, yet broken, eyes of the subjects in the tanks. With a quick stab of her sword, the Agate over-seeing the controls toppled over. Pressing some buttons quickly, she had triggered an alarm count-down as all the tanks where unlocked. Flicking through a guide, she inputed a code and bought herself some more time.

"What's going on?" She heard a voice to the side, she turned and found a short, pudgy girl looking at her. The crowd began to murmur in confusion.

"We are getting out of here!" Pearl finally addressed them, and more murmurings began. "We don't have to die here! There is a whole world outside, waiting to be discovered!"

"But what can we do?" Another voice asked, "We're here because we can't do anything!"

"That's not true!" Pearl quickly replied, "We can all do something! Each of us is unique because of our defects and that's what makes us stronger than any of them! If we give up, then we would really be weak!" Pearl took a deep sigh, "I am a Pearl! We have absolutely nothing to give to them! We're not special! and yet I managed to take down several guards on my way here! If I can do that then so can you!"

The speech was as good as she could make it, but...

There was a resounding silence with the crowd.

"Listen up people!" Pearl turned to see a tall woman beside her, she had different eyes and an interesting accent. "Pearl has risked her life to save us! We can't just not do anything!"

"Yeah!" The same pudgy girl added on, "I don't want to die here!"

With that, everyone began to state their agreements. No-one wanted to die without a fight.

"So now what?" The shorter girl turned to her again, everyone listened closely,

Pearl sighed and looked back to the timer, she had one minute. "Listen closely! There is someone waiting outside! If we work our way up then we can find an exit!"

"We can go through the side staircases," The tall woman added, "there's no doubt that the guards will be on to us and they will try to block off central areas."

"We can use their own weapons against them!" Another cried out,

"There's an armoury nearby!" Another ones voice said.

"Then what are we waiting for?! Let's show them we aren't for terminating!"

A resounding rally cry erupted and for once Pearl experienced how addicting the feeling 'hope' was.


	12. Chapter 12 - Flames

Before Pearl could comprehend it she was leading an army of armed survivors down hallways and up stairways, the alarm was loud and echoed through the corridors as the red lights continuously flashed. She was splattered with blood of the numerous people she cut down and her hands where covered in the red liquid, a mental image never to be forgotten.  
She smiled despite it all, despite the pleas for forgiveness and the cries of the wounded.  
She turned to the tall woman, who called herself Garnet, and stabbed the approaching guard behind her.

"Garnet! lead the others up to the main exit! I'm staying behind to help the stragglers!"

She gave the thumbs up and quickly led the group up the nearby set of stairs. Pearl ran back as quickly as she could, dodging the swords and batons or her enemies before cutting them down brutally. She found the short girl named Amethyst defending several non-combatants who had either been injured or helping the injured.

"Watch out!" Pearl cried as she cut off an enemies hand, the guard whimpered in pain just before Pearl followed up her attack by stabbing them with the metal pole,

"Thanks!" Amethyst grinned and helped a fallen comrade to their feet.

"You need to get a move on!" Pearl huffed,

"Look, there's a lot of us that can't fight!" Amethyst replied, "They keep attacking us from everywhere!"

Pearl sighed and cut down a guard. 'There shouldn't be a lot of them left…' She thought as she speared the other following them.  
"How did you learn to fight like that?" Amethyst asked her as they rushed the injured forwards,

"I guess I taught myself… It was all I could learn if I was beaten every single day." Pearl replied, but it seemed to be a bad topic for a conversation.

"Well I'm glad you're on our side," Amethyst grinned and Pearl couldn't help but smile as well.

They sighed in relief when the stairway was in sight.  
"Amethyst, lead the others, I'll make sure no-one's left behind." Pearl stood to the side of the stairway.

"Sure, we'll continue our way to the exit!" Amethyst replied as she ran by. Pearl waited until everyone who was injured limped their way up the stairs, but something kept her from following, something loud and angry. She turned and found the ominous figure of Jasper approaching.  
"You…" Jasper spat, "You were working with that Rose all along weren't you?!"

Pearl readied her weapons, "I don't know who that is."

"Don't lie!" Jasper barked, "She's the leader of that rebellious group in the neighbouring complex! I barely managed to make it out of there before the whole thing blew up!"

'So that's what her name was.' Pearl tutted, "what does it matter? You've lost!" She raised her sword and pointed it to the surroundings, corpses littered the floors and blood acted like a new coat of paint on the walls. "Look! Look at what we accomplished! What **I** accomplished!" She couldn't help but smile, "you won't be any different."

"You're going to regret the day that you and that traitor destroyed my home!" Jasper yelled her terrifying battle cry and charged at Pearl. She quickly dodged it and sliced her thigh but she wasn't fast enough to jump out the way of the wide swing of the woman. She was thrown into the wall, thankfully she never hit her head like last time.

"Big talk from a weakling." Jasper grunted, "I can't believe I had comrades who where scared of encountering you!"

Pearl clenched her hands around the weapons tightly. "Perhaps you should learn from them then." Jasper was about to charge again but the sudden shake of the ground stopped her.  
Pearls focus on Jasper was also momentarily broken as she felt the floor start to rumble, she caught the scent of smoke and flickers of flames and electricity around her.  
"I guess we've pulled the plug." Jasper laughed, "Now we're both going to die in here!"

Pearl frowned 'They don't honestly have a self-destruct button…' She cringed when they realised that they must have had some form of a self-destruct button. 'They really are stupid.'

"No." Pearl bit back, "but you will!"

She launched the metal pole at Jasper and watched it satisfyingly bury into her leg. Jasper grunted and with the time it took her to pull out the pole, the fire had reached her and the ceiling started to fall. Pearl turned and ran up the stairs to the top floor, she ran through the corridors and dodged the many things littering the floor.

Desks, chairs, weapons, bodies, everything was getting swallowed in the fire.

Pearl ran towards the exit and had no clue how she managed to find Amethyst stuck under some rubble in the side.  
"Amethyst!" She ran up to her and tried pushing the column stuck over her leg.

"Just leave me!" She pushed her away in protest, "save yourself! like the others!"

"No way!" Pearl jammed her sword under the stone and pushed, "keep pulling your leg!" she grunted.

"No! Look out!" Amethyst gasped and Pearl felt herself being pulled away. She glanced back and found Jasper trying to restrain her, with a swift kick to her injured leg she was let go painfully.

Jasper was in a terrible condition, the bandages had burned off and revealed her jagged cut across her face. Her arms were covered in burns and cuts and her clothes were smouldering from the flames. 'Did She seriously manage to run through the flames?' Pearl took a cautious step back, she was unarmed and wide open. She glanced at the sword, she couldn't remove it, if she did then Amethyst would be trapped again.  
"Can't get rid of me that easy!" She grumbled and then charged at her.

Pearl thought she was done for, but by some sick, twisted luck the floor gave way and Amethyst caught the leg of the enraged woman. Jasper fell into the fire below. Pearl looked down and the very pole that she had used as a spear was stabbed through Jaspers side.

"That was close. Too close!" Amethyst coughed out. The smoke was getting thicker and Pearl also found herself coughing as she returned to Amethyst and hauled her onto her back, Pearl continued to run where she could just make out the light peeking from a doorway.

When Pearl opened her eyes, gasping for air, she seen how green the grass was, how blue the sky was and how cool the breeze was for the first time.

Pearl looked back to the burning building from up on a hill, her hands slightly shaking from the whole ordeal but clenched around a sword and pole. She felt safer with these weapons in her hands, any moment and she could get attacked again by more guards. She took a painful gulp, even if most of them never escaped the flames. The fires burned red and it raged on, cracking the framework and smashing the glass. Propaganda posters fluttered away with the wind and those numbers, 1-1-2-7, is burning with it.

Glancing back to the group she saved, Pearl spotted Amethyst with a bandage on her leg and a big grin as well as Garnet, who was hugging two shorter figures. Everyone was scared with what was to come, but at least they were alive.  
Pearl shuddered when she seen a familiar figure approach her. Taking the sharp metal rod that she used as a Spear, she twirled and pointed the tip to the figures throat. She seen a woman in a white dress, with large pink curls standing before her. Someone she had seen and heard of before.

"I'm Rose… You're Pearl right?" She smiled,

Pearl gave her a curt nod and returned her gaze to the burning building. She dropped her 'spears' tip to the ground.

She heard Rose softly sigh, "I can't believe they would burn down their own base… So many lives where lost…"

"They deserved it." Pearl clenched her hands around her weapons, "there's no need to be sympathetic."

"All life is precious Pearl." Rose gently put her hand onto her shoulder, "many had no choice but to follow orders… But let's look at what we did accomplish, you saved everyone, all who were left to die and suffer get to see the sun and live a life worth living."

She softly blushed at that, "I-I didn't do anything… I just listened to your transmission."

Rose smiled knowingly and Pearl looked away.

The fire that burned so strongly could never compete with the burning loyalty that Pearl devoted to Rose throughout the following decades that not even a complete memory wipe could rub away.


	13. Chapter 13 - Jasper

Lapis whimpered. She wasn't feeling well at all.

She looked back to Pearl slowly after failing to fight her tears. She was still on the floor, a small puddle of blood had collected under her.  
She looked so... Peaceful.

'It could have been peaceful.' Lapis hugged herself and shivered as she finally realised how cold the surrounding really were. She kneeled down beside Pearl and brushed her hair out of her eyes, it was as if she was sleeping... Except she'll never wake up...

Suddenly the loud thud of Jaspers footsteps began resonating throughout the hallway once again. But this time Lapis would be prepared.

Leaving Pearls side, Lapis ran up to the backpack she left on the metal table. As quick as she could, she opened and dropped all of her bottles of water. A cunning plan was being calculated in her mind.

When Jasper did come into the room, she found Lapis by Pearl's side again, she was holding her hand and softly brushing Pearl's cold cheek. She no longer hoped that her eyes would open, or that she would ever hug her again. This time the shorter girl was silent, she had to be strong for her right now.

"Well... Look at this..." She could feel Jaspers grin without needing to look at her. "I must have missed that failed project murder her! Shame, I wanted to kill her myself."

Lapis frowned and gripped the rim of her shirt. 'Not yet... She's not close enough yet...'

"What were you planning with that tank?" Lapis asked her coldly, she must have lowered the temperature of the water in the air at least a little. Some frost started to grow on the tanks glass.

"I wanted her to remember." Jasper replied, "what better way than put her into this tank?"

"Why? How?" Lapis cast Jasper a glare, "You destroyed this complex for this? Revenge?!"

She heard Jasper chuckle at that, "I never broke any of those creatures out. They broke themselves out and I just used it to my advantage." She walked to the computers and her fingers traced over the keyboard. "It was just... So... Perfect..."

Lapis stayed silent. Jasper was too far away for her water to reach and by the looks of it, the woman was making herself comfortable by leaning against the table.

"Using the remains of that old complex-" Jasper pointed to the screen, "The company repaired that small house on the surface, back then it served as the only entrance for suppliers... But they forgot about it and sold it once a new tunnel was constructed... Little did they know that **you** were in the basement and were the cause of multiple problems for the technicians..." Her eyes glinted in the darkness "They forgot about you... But I didn't."

"I don't care about buildings or about how I was abandoned." Lapis gritted her teeth, "how did you know Pearl moved in? Was it all some sort of intricate plan?"

Jasper folded her arms, "That Peridot is useful... She told me about her when I caught her sneaking about the facility... She's really irritating isn't she? All that shouting... and crying... You wouldn't believe how she managed to escape."

"Don't tell me you hurt her!" Lapis sat up slightly,

"No. More like an aggressive interrogation..." 'Like torture?!' "I kinda wish I sticked around a little longer and found out more about Rose Quartz. But there are plenty of others that I can 'ask'."

Lapis looked at her darkly.

"I'm going to kill you." She spat out... And she wasn't joking.

"Let's see how well that goes for you..."

Using her powers, Lapis launched her water at Jasper. It was easily dodged by the woman, the **monster,** in front of her. Jasper lunged and grabbed Lapis by her neck, she held her up effortlessly. Lapis attempted to kick her but it was as effective as kicking a brick wall.  
The grip got tighter and Lapis gasped, she couldn't breath.

"I don't need you after all... You should have joined me when you had the chance."

Lapis's vision got dark and she clawed desperately at the larger woman's hands. She was about to faint when she seen some movement behind Jasper and heard a loud thud.

Lapis was dropped onto her knees and she coughed, she gulped in the air as if any moment she would be grabbed again. She looked up, a winded Jasper was standing on top of her trap. Before she could process anything, a wave of the hand and Jasper was turned upside down by the water. Suspended mid-air, she was harmless.  
Jasper didn't know what happened, even Lapis never knew what happened. But whatever happened had just saved her life.

"Get me out of this!" Jasper growled and tried to free her legs, but it only made Lapis's grip stronger.

"Never." Lapis grumbled and stood up, "I'm going to put you where you belong..."

She moved the tall girl to the tank, picking up a key-card that had landed softly on the floor as she followed Jasper.

She was suspended over the tank. The object that killed Pearl and imprisoned her for all those years.

Now, it would imprison Jasper with a sick sense of irony.

"Before you do put me in the tank. I have one thing to tell you..." Jasper grumbled, "My only regret... Would be to not see your friend getting terminated about now."  
Lapis dropped and locked her in the tank. A sense of accomplishment filled her when she pressed the same button that caused the end of Pearl's life.  
Her stoic face broke ever so slightly and a few tears escaped.

'Now isn't the time!' Lapis wiped her tears and ran by Pearl. 'I'm not going to be responsible for another death!'

Lapis ran further into the base, running faster as she continued down the dark halls. Initially she jumped at the sound of whirring machines, but it gave Lapis more reason to run faster and now it was towards the sound.  
The shorter girl panted as she finally stopped in front of a door, it was rusted shut. She swiped the security card over the locking device but the door remained closed.  
Lapis used the water from a nearby pipe to break the hinges, with a quick kick the door almost landed directly on her.  
She ran into the room and Lapis gasped.

The machine had a large circular saw, coated in dried blood, that was spinning rapidly and there was Garnet, bound, gagged and in the path of the saw that was now just inches away from her face. Using the water, Lapis hit the stop button before the saw dug itself into her head.

She almost collapsed from the adrenaline rush she just had. 'That was far too close!' but she still joined Garnet and helped unbind her, Lapis took away the rag shoved into the policewoman's mouth. Dropping the fabric onto the floor with disgust.  
"Ew." Garnet instantly spat, Lapis could sympathise. The rag was dirty and who knows how it got so dirty. But she could not ever imagine being so cool about it.

"How did you get yourself into this?" Lapis asked, pulling her up.

"She fights dirty." Garnet shrugged her shoulders. "So Pearl is..."

Lapis whimpered slightly and she covered her face with her hands. "She's not here anymore..."

"I doubt that."

Lapis looked at Garnet in confusion.

"Pearl is smart. She could have faked her death easily."

"Why would she do that?" The shorter girl sniffed and wiped away a few tears. The prospect of Pearl being alive was enough to keep her strong.

"Only, Pearl can answer that."

A few seconds later and a loud well-known beep was heard, a loud and irritated voice soon followed.

"Garnet! GARNET!" Amethyst yelled,

"I'm here." the police woman pushed a button on her radio, how it was still working? That's something that Lapis could never answer.

"Do you know how long we've been trying to contact you?!" The younger girl groans, "We managed to trap all the monsters up here. Have you found Pearl or Lapis?"

"Yes, they're here."

Lapis paled slightly, 'If Pearl really is... Gone. How do I tell the others? Now that Garnet lied to them.'

"Good! now cross the wires and get out of there!"

"Cross the wires?" Lapis muttered under her breath, "you're going to destroy this place?."

"It's the only way." Garnet put a hand onto her shoulder, "It's either Beach City over run with monsters, or this."

"...You lied about Pearl." Lapis crossed her arms,

"I wouldn't be so quick to judge..." Garnet smiled mysteriously, "Go find Pearl. I'll handle everything here."

Lapis practically couldn't disagree with the woman, she was already being pushed out the door and her protests were ignored. Despite her disapproval she trekked back to that room, the room where all her hopes were broken.

Everything was the same. Jasper floated in the tank but would move time to time, 'she must still be alive' Lapis frowned, 'doesn't matter, she'll never leave the tank ever again.' Lapis picked up the bag from the metal table and slung it over her shoulder, she sighed sadly 'Pearl's backpack...' The room was still as cluttered with computers and the metal tables never moved an inch...

But something was **wrong**...

The peaceful body of the person she cared most about and never expressed it... **wasn't there**.

She clenched her hands into fists and looked round the room, she seen several handprints along the ceiling. 'That project must have took her! She was crying over her. She must have done it!' The only thing left was a visually disturbed puddle of blood. 'Then again, she must have saved me from Jasper...'

Lapis heard some running through the hallways, she remembered the sounds being exactly the same as Malachite's running when she was chasing after her. As quick as she could, Lapis ran after the sound through the dark hallways with new found purpose. She leaped over tables, chairs and medical equipment. Using the surroundings to further herself, getting closer to the figure. Then when she was close enough. She lunged and caught one of the arms of the suspected experiment.

She panted as the pinned the figure underneath her. It didn't feel like Malachite, much too soft and smaller. Taking her torch from the bag, Lapis turned it on and paled.

Underneath her was a ghost...

It was **Pearl**.

"Lapis?" Her voice rang like a bell through her ears and her tears began to fall again. She felt the cool hands of the taller girl brush her cheeks, fighting a never-ending battle of drying her tears.

"P-Pearl?" Lapis whimpered and her hand with the torch shook. "N-no... You... You **Died**! You can't be her!"

"No Lapis I-"

"Stop it!" Lapis smacked it's hands away and she shivered, "Haven't I lost enough?! She doesn't deserve this!"

Lapis hid her face behind her hands and began crying as hard as before. She didn't know how she should feel when she seen a dead person walk about. She felt the figure hug her close, wrapping it's arms around her shoulders, gently rocking her and Lapis un-wittingly buried her head into their shoulder, hugging her with a grip as if she was about to disappear again.

"I'm sorry." The girl began to rub her back softly, slowly, "When I woke up. You were putting Jasper into the tank and ran away before I stopped you..."

"G-Garnet-!"

"I know..." Pearl sighed, "I tried running after you, but I couldn't find you... I guess I don't have a sense of direction after all."

That was all the confirmation Lapis needed to know that the woman she was hugging really was Pearl.

"I- I thought you were dead." Lapis sniffed,

"But I'm here..." Pearl replied, "I'm sorry-"

Lapis shook her head, "no, I'm sorry... Everything that you had to go through..."

Pearl stayed silent momentarily "You're talking about that complex right?" Lapis nodded slightly, "Jaspers plan really worked I guess... She forced me to remember by shoving me into a tank... **My** tank..."

"You scared me." Lapis shuddered, remembering the reports of a nightmare that cut people down despite begging her to stop, a grin as wide as a Jaspers plastered on her face.

"Lapis, I've changed... Rose changed me before I lost my memories." Pearl petted her hair, "I'm so happy that I've changed... If I didn't... I would've left you in the basement."

The shorter girl nodded her head, her only form of showing her understanding when she ran out of words to be said.  
"How did you lose your memories?" Lapis asked, finally meeting Pearl's eyes,

"Can a person remember how they were born?" Pearl hummed, and Lapis shook her head, "Exactly."

"T-that doesn't answer-"

"But it does." Pearl interrupted her, "Rose gave us the opportunity to be people... not experiments, not clones, but **people**... and so, like people we forgot things as the years passed."

"Just like that?" Lapis frowned,

"Just like that." Pearl smiled briefly, "but... Even now there are gaps in my memory. I don't know if Rose actually did something to us, I don't think she did, but I guess that's a mystery that will never be solved."

Suddenly a very strange question entered Lapis's head. She tilted her head slightly. "Will I forget?"

"Only if you want to," Pearl replied, "but then you would forget how we met..."

"I don't want to forget..."

Everything was happening so suddenly, but she never cared. Pearl was alive and this time for sure she was going to tell her...

"Pearl... I-"

"We should get out of here." Pearl interrupted her again, but this time she sounded a little rushed, "Garnet's probably at the ground floor by now."

"She's 'pulling the plug'." Lapis said as she stood up and helped Pearl onto her feet. She held her hand tightly. 'I'm never letting go again.'

Pearl looked unsure.

Lapis sighed, calming herself down, "Let's go." She pulled Pearl away. She was slightly shivering and her hands were cold. 'We'd better get out as soon as possible.' She squeezed her hand and ran for the stairway.

Away from this mess, away from the experiments, the monsters, Jasper and Garnet.


	14. Chapter 14 - Letting Go

Lapis had to drag Pearl up the stairs, she never wanted to be this rough with her, but she constantly looked backwards in worry and it was slowing them down.  
"Pearl please. Garnet will be fine!" Lapis finally said,

"But-"

"We need to get out of here!" Lapis replied, she could hear the creaking in the walls, "Garnet's okay! When have we ever doubted her?"

'Ugh, why did I say that? What possessed me to say that?!…' Lapis groaned when Pearl gave her a pitiful look.

The stairs creaked further as they kept running up. It was shaking violently and Lapis gasped at the idea that the stairs would break under them, she imagined falling all the way down… and the crash at the bottom.  
Thankfully they got to the top floor in one piece. Amethyst and Peridot were in the background holding hands and watching for more fusions. They looked content, almost happy. 'I guess Amethyst said it...' Lapis smiled.

Lapis began to slowly lead Pearl to the others, a pang of nervousness went through her but she was much to happy that they were so close to feeling the breeze again.

Her vision of the sun and sea broke as soon as she felt Pearl yank away her hand. Lapis whipped her head back to see the panic in Pearls eyes.  
"Pearl?-"

"I'm sorry." She cut in, "but I have to go help Garnet! I can't leave her!"

Before she ran back to the stairs, Lapis lunged and caught her hand again.

"Lapis?!-"

"What do I do to get you to stay?!" Lapis burst out, she felt tears welling up, "I- I don't want you to die again! I don't want to lose you and have to hold you again and cry!"

"Lapis-" Pearl tried but Lapis never allowed her,

"No! do you know what I think?!" Lapis blushed, her tears falling and she suddenly felt so frustrated. But her frustration wasn't directed to Pearl in any way, 'Why can't I just tell her?!' "Pearl! I- I-!"

Then her breath was taken away.

It felt sweet and warm. A hand brushed away her tears and she closed her eyes as she pushed herself forward, wanting more of the lips that planted themselves. The kiss was beautiful, Pearl was beautiful. It felt as if everything was erased but them and that not even the best of painters could paint or writers that could convey in words.  
Lapis found her breath when they parted, their faced were plagued with a persistent blush. Yet again Pearl was successful in taking her breath away as she brushed her cheek.

But then Pearl paled.

Lapis watched as Pearl slowly backed up, horror in her eyes. If Lapis hadn't been holding her arm then she would have ran at that moment.

"I-I'm sorry." Pearls eyes went wide, "I-I didn't... I never controlled myself there... I don't-"

Lapis's heart broke, "W-what?" She shivered, "You... You can't..." Pearl stayed silent and looked to the floor.

"I'm sorry Lapis."

"You can't do that Pearl!" Lapis whimpered, "Y-you can't just kiss me and then just... Just!" She shakily breathed out.

Pearl gave her a pleading look and gently put her hand onto the death grip that Lapis had on her wrist, "Lapis. Please, let me go…"

"But I just found you… I don't want to lose you again…" Her grip only got tighter, her tears fell down her cheeks. "Even if you don't care... Even if you don't look at me the same way..."

Pearl sighed, "I'm sorry." She then gave a mysterious look to something behind the shorter girl. Before Lapis could turn around, she felt herself being pulled away and Pearl slipped back down the stairs after a parting look.

"What? Pearl! Wait!" Lapis called after her and tried wriggling away from whatever mysterious force that grabbed her. "You can't do this! You can't!"

"Stop wriggling Lazuli!" The familiar voice of the not so mysterious or forceful Peridot grunted. Lapis tore her gaze away from the stairway to see Amethyst holding one of her arms securely, whilst on the other hand (literally on the other hand) Peridot was struggling to just hold onto her.

"Let me go! Can't you see she's making a mistake?!" Lapis struggled but was pulled back by Amethyst,

"No!" Peridot grunted,

"Umm? Yeah?" Amethyst huffed, "Lapis was totally shot down! That's the mistake!"

"No it's!- Ugh!" Even Peridot couldn't deny it "Listen Lapis, if Garnet was to do everything herself she'll never get out in time! Pearl can easily help her with-!"

The dreaded sound of crashing shook right through Lapis. Using all of her power she broke free of their grasp and ran to the stairway in panic. But all she seen was darkness and a large drop.

 **"Pearl!"**

—

The fall was a long and painful one. Pearl grunted and opened her eyes when she reached the bottom with a thud, she gasped when a metal pole landed inches away from her face. She quickly leaped out to the corridor and looked back as more metal came down. With a wave of relief washing over her, Pearl stood up with a sigh. A pang of pain suddenly hit her face and she tasted metal in her mouth, quickly she spat out the blood as she pinched the bridge of her nose, pressuring the wound, 'Great, another cut there… How nostalgic.'.

She sighed at the disaster that just happened. Not the staircase obviously, she was already used to this sort of disaster... But Lapis, that was something else...  
'I'm a terrible person. **This!** This is why Rose chose Greg!'  
She thought back to what she said, what she rejected and felt a few tears welling up, 'oh here we go again'. Pearl wiped her eyes, smudging the blood on her nose across her face in the process. But her tears still dropped...  
"I'm so sorry... I..." She said into the darkness, "I'm just scared of hurting you..."

Pearl wiped her tears away again and with a final sigh, she turned on her heels and sprinted as fast as she could, away from the ruined metal stairs, away from Lapis.

Pearl ran through the corridors, glimpsing into the rooms. The trickling of blood down her cheeks and dripping from her chin had stopped for now, she did tut at what a mess she must have looked like. Pearl skidded to a stop when she spotted Garnet wiring something and a familiar figure hunched over to the side.  
"Why is she out the tank?" Pearl glared at the unconscious Jasper,

Garnet replied with a point to the cables and a nod, 'As if I'm supposed to know what that means.' Pearl huffed, "I knew you would come back."

"I know." Pearl huffed. "You always know…"

"I blame Sapphire... I think." Garnet bluntly stated,

"You remember?" Pearl asked,

"I remember Ruby, Sapphire and you, back when we first met Rose. That's all I need to remember." Garnet smiled a little, "you might not want to look into a mirror right now… It's going to haunt you."  
Pearl could hear some electricity buzzing from the cables. They pulsed like a bomb count-down, ready to explode at any time.

"It must be like a flashback to you." Pearl looked down to her bloodied hands, "That is if you remember-" Pearl paused, she didn't want to re-tell the horror story that was their life. She didn't want Garnet to fully remember what happened.

"Eh… You're not as terrifying as before…" Garnet replied,

"Wow thanks…" Pearl responded with a frown.

Then Garnet finally tore something out of the wall, cables and wires sparked everywhere dangerously.  
"The stairs we came down have collapsed, we need to find another exit." Pearl looked back to Garnet, she knew that the police officer already predicted everything. But frowned angrily as she watched Garnet fling Jasper over her shoulder and walk out the hall. "Just leave her! She'll only put us in danger!"

"But if I leave her, she'll die."

"Wha? That's the point of leaving her!" Pearl grumbled,

"All life is precious Pearl and despite the horrors she's done, she made me remember my family." Garnet stopped an looked at her, "that's what Rose taught us… To be kind and forgiving." Pearl frowned "now let's get moving if we don't want to get crushed."

Pearl huffed in irritation again but quickly led the way.

She felt her sweat trickle down from her temples, it was getting warmer and she could smell smoke. She moved desks back and put out the creeping flames that where gradually becoming more out of control. They kept coughing and opening numerous door, Pearl silently pleaded for a stairway to show up.

"We're getting closer!" Pearl could barely hear Garnet over the fire.

"Then try and keep up!" Pearl yelled back as she burned herself pushing cabinets out the way.

Walking through the flames, Pearl smiled in relief when they finally climbed up some stairs. Pearl smile grew the higher she went but so did her nerves, Lapis was waiting and so was freedom.

A whack to the back of her head brought her to the harsh reality. She crashed to the down and smashed her head against the hot metal steps.  
"You can't get rid of me that easily!" The now awake Jasper growled, but the familiar spider-like fusion jumped onto her back, pulling her down, "Get off me MAL-0613!" Jasper growled trying to fling the subject off.

"I am Malachite now." The fusion replied and pulled her to the edge. "Go!"The experiment struggled to pull Jasper back.

Jasper gritted her teeth, "tell Rose her days are numbered! because one day she'll get what's coming! You all will!" She yelled before she was pulled down into the flames.

They were screaming in agony, it made Pearls ears ring and she felt light-headed. She watched Garnet pull out her gun and aim down into the fire. Two gun shots were fired and the screaming stopped. 'The final act of mercy.'

She felt faint, the stairs were slowly breaking and she couldn't stand up. She slowly slid over the edge, she could feel the flames travel up her arms and she was too weak to pull herself back up. The wounds that she had endured began radiating with pain and her head spun far to quickly for her too keep up.  
Thankfully, Pearl felt Garnet grab her and pulled her up, throwing her over her shoulder as she ran up the stairs.  
"Sorry…" Pearl breathed out, watching the flames and slowly losing consciousness.

"It's fine!" Garnet grumbled, "you were right! I should have listened!"

"No…" Pearl grumbled, "I should have… Listened to Rose… Trusted you... You showed mercy and she would have never made it out the flames… Rose would have been proud." She coughed and her body was wracked with pain, the injuries she received from the tank where determined not to be forgotten.

"Thanks… I don't think she'll be coming back anytime soon." Garnet hummed and continued running, finally reaching the top floor again.

"Garnet… I can't-" Pearl tried as everything went blurry, "tell Lapis I-…"

"I will."

Pearl barely uttered her thanks before she blacked out, the faint yelp of Lapis yelling her name echoed in her ears.


	15. Chapter 15 - Earthquake

She was cold once again.

Despite the crumbling base and the flames licking their arms.

She was cold.

Lapis could only hope that she was breathing, as she certainly didn't when Garnet hoisted Pearl onto her back and placed a hand onto Lapis's shoulder. Her only comfort was the calm demeanour of the police woman that assured her that Pearl was only unconscious, but Lapis could see that Pearl was getting worse. It could have been the blood loss from her injuries, perhaps it was even an infection or maybe it was due to her head injury.

"She wanted to tell you that she's sorry..." Garnet told her.

"I- I already know..." Lapis felt her stomach churn again and she felt Peridot hold her arm comfortingly.

"Now lets get out of here," Garnet hummed.

Peridot pointed down a hallway "Exit's this way!"

The smoke grew thicker and it became hard to see, Lapis could barely see the others around her as they ran past burning tables and papers. She had to ignore the screaming of the poor fusion experiments unable to get away from the sea of flames.  
Lapis heard a crash and a loud grunt of pain Lapis looked back and she seen Amethyst starting to limp, a large burn on her leg. She grabbed her arm and pulled it around her shoulder, Amethyst leaned on her and they continued as best they could.

They panted and grinned when they seen the boiler doorway, completely clear.  
"That's right! Garnet cleared it!" Lapis chuckled,

"Aw Yeah!" Amethyst laughed,

"Can you two dolts hurry up?!" Peridot yelped back at them, she was holding Pearls wrist and trying to get a glimpse of her injuries "Pearl isn't doing too good!"

Their smiles dropped, Amethyst also almost dropped countless times. Lapis tried not to glance back, she could feel the flames on the backs of her legs and the fire only got hotter.  
Lapis couldn't hear anything other than the crackling and the breaking of glass. She could see that Amethyst was saying something, but no matter how much she strained she could not hear anything. Only when Amethyst pointed did Lapis realise that she was trying to say, but it was too late.  
Some of the ceiling panels came down and Lapis never moved quick enough to dodge them, she winced when it hit her already injured back and scratched down her legs. She bit her tongue, it felt like a rusted blade just tore through her body and she started to shake. 'I will not scream. I will not yell.' became a mantra.

"YOU OKAY?!" Amethyst yelled into her ear, the only way she could hear her.

"YEAH!" Lapis replied and winced again as the back of her legs where burned by the flames.

Lapis whimpered as they past the hot water pipes, but finally she screamed in pain when a pipe burst and hot boiling water went all over her back. As quickly as it splashed on her she used her powers to quench some of the flames behind them, but the damage had been done and she toppled to the floor. Garnet and Peridot glanced back at them and quickly came to the rescue, Garnet picked Amethyst up with one arm and Peridot supported Lapis. The pain was overwhelming, almost crippling. If it wasn't for Peridot keeping her upright she wouldn't have made it past the tank, her old tank.

Using the water around her, Lapis managed to push herself forward towards the basement, they slowed down and walked through the hole before finally ascending into the moderately messy room of the house. The salt sea air kissed their faces and cooled them down.

They cried in relief.

Garnet carefully put Pearl onto the couch and Amethyst onto an armchair, she then sat down. Despite all her intensive training she slumped onto the other armchair, her muscles finally resting.  
"Peri…" Lapis groaned as they joined them, "help me get to Pearl…"

"O-okay." Peridot held her arm tightly, Lapis could hear her struggling holding her up, her strength was slowly deteriorating. Peridot panted when she sat Lapis down onto her knees beside Pearl.

Lapis brushed her blood covered cheek and tears formed themselves from her eyes. Pearl was covered in her own blood and was deathly pale, she had burns all over her like everyone else and her breathing was shallow. Lapis forced herself to focus on something else, something to take her mind away from Pearl dying in her arms, her eyes lingered on the cushion and began frowning at the couch's condition. 'Pearl is going to hate this…'  
"Pearl?" Lapis strained. She watched the taller girls eyes slowly open, "P-pearl?"

"Lapis…" Her voice wasn't any louder than a whisper, she brought her hand up and cupped Lapis's cheek. Despite the numerous burns on her hands, she wiped away the tears. Lapis nuzzled into her hand carefully and brushed her cheek again.

"You're so mean..." Lapis whimpered, "You're sorry? You're dying and you tell me that you're sorry?" Her tears were trickling down her cheeks.

"No..." Pearl sighed, she forced herself onto her forearms. She ignored Lapis's protests.

"Pearl! Stop you're mmf!-" She was silenced by a weak kiss.

"I love you..."

They slowly kissed again with a strain, Lapis could only taste blood. They pulled away and Pearl frowned slightly as she wiped away her blood from Lapis's lips and she blushed furiously.

"I love you too..."

"So~ Nothing between you two?" Amethyst wheezed from the armchair she was sitting on, Peridot hovered around her worryingly but was far too tired to do much. Lapis was thankful that Peridot wasn't injured that badly. Garnet was still slouching on the armchair beside her, getting her breath back from having to carry two injured people whilst also having burns of her own to worry about.

"You… Never seen?" Lapis whimpered,

"I'm just joking," Amethyst grumbled, "Obviously I seen you two swear your 'undying love' or whatever!" They chuckled at that and then coughed.

"You look terrible." Peridot stated, looking around the room at the defeated faces. Lapis could only imagine what her back looked like. She never wanted Pearl to see her wounds. 'She would be so worried.'

"I'd say look at yourself, but we all are pretty terrible." Garnet chuckled,

They all laughed again painfully and began to splutter, wheeze and cough.

"Guys… I think I need a doctor…" Amethyst grumbled.

"We all do." Pearl replied quietly and they laughed again.

However, the laughter was replaced with fear when the ground suddenly crumbled… The wood cracked loudly and before Lapis knew what happened she was pushed to the side by Peridot, a few seconds later and she could no longer see or feel anything...

... All Lapis could hear was sirens.

She heard some wood being moved and then she was blinded by sunlight, she shuddered as the wind stung her back.  
"Here, let's get you out there." She looked up and noticed Mr Fryman starting to lift the planks of her legs,

"Picking up those potato bags… Must have made you stronger…" Lapis tried to laugh but ended up coughing badly and whimpered in pain.

"Whoa! hold on there!" Mr Fryman finally moved the planks and bent down on one knee. He momentarily called over the paramedics. "Who else was in the house?" He asked,

"Pearl, Peridot…" Lapis winced, "and… two of Pearls visiting friends, Amethyst and Garnet."

"Right, we'll get you all to safety. Just Breath." He told her and she could only hum in reply. She remembered seeing other recognisable faces, like the pizzas and a panicking mayor who were taking care of other civilians in-case something else might happen, there was also a young mother and fisherman helping with moving planks of wood and uncovering everyone with such intensity that Lapis almost mistaken them for the emergency services. She did not intend to pass out however.

—

When Lapis woke up, she was behind some sort of curtain and heard rhythmic beeping. There was a mask on her face that she quickly took off but winced at the movement of doing so. She looked down and noticed that she was wearing some strange hospital gown, she shivered at the flash-backs of the fusions. Plastic tubes were stuck into her arms, but not painfully so as the liquid that was being slowly injected into her felt pleasant. After a few minutes of staring at nothing in particular, the curtains opened slowly and a tall woman in a white lab coat walked in. Lapis trembled.  
"Ah you're awake!" The doctor smiled and some of Lapis's anxiety dispelled. "You were quite the mystery case-"

"Where are the others?" Lapis cut her off quickly, she was not going to be the only one in this place... This hospital... 'I'll **put** someone in hospital as to not be alone!'

The doctor paused and pulled the curtains back, Lapis seen Amethyst sitting on a bed of her own with a large bandage on her leg. Peridot was sitting across from her with some bandages around her arms, they were chatting contentedly. Lapis spotted Garnet arguing with a nurse by the door, she never cared to find out about what. At least they were also all wearing the hospital gown.  
Lapis spotted Pearl behind the curtain beside her and she went to sit up but whimpered painfully.  
"No! No!" The doctor gently pushed her back down, Lapis flinched and the doctor must have noticed as she backed off slowly "you need to rest and heal that back of yours!"

Lapis never responded to her but looked at Pearl with worry.  
"How long have I been out?" Lapis asked the doctor,

"A few days, but that's quite lucky for what you've been through." She replied, Lapis watched her curiously write some things on a board. She never liked that at all and her hands clenched the sheets. "I'm Doctor Maheswaran by the way, you're Lapis Lazuli correct?"

"Yes," She replied,

"Can you remember what happened?"  
'What a loaded question.' Lapis thought back to the terrors she experienced, the things she seen.

"Not really…" She replies, 'No point in telling her the truth.'

"You were injured during an Earthquake, the roof came down on you." The doctor began writing again, "do you know how you where burned?"

"No." Yet another lie,

The doctor hummed, "anyway, that's all I'll ask you for now-."

"How long will I be here?" Lapis huffed,

"Until your condition improves." The doctor answered, Lapis sighed again,

"I see, thank you."

The doctor smiled, "I'll come back later and do a check-up." Lapis nodded and watched the doctor leave, closing the door behind her. 'Not **all** of them are bad.'

"Hey Lapis!" Peridot grinned and she smiled back.

"Hey Peridot."

"You okay?" Lapis hummed, about to reply when she seen something that made her speechless... Correction... What she **didn't** see.

"P-Peridot... Your leg..." Lapis breathed out.

The shorter girl gave her a small smile and she looked down to her left leg, it was now shortened by a foot...  
"I broke my foot badly when the house fell... It got infected and... Yeah..." Peridot replied and she gave a weak smile. "At least you're not crushed!"

Lapis couldn't measure how unbelievably strong she was, stronger than everybody in the room. She shivered and didn't even notice the pain radiating from her back.

"Hey, it's okay..." Peridot said, "We're tough, real tough. So this isn't the end of the world, I mean, I'm going to get a robotic leg! How cool is that?" Lapis grinned at that and looked back to Pearl. She was whimpering and clawing at the sheets.

"Hey, can someone help me get over there?" Lapis pointed to Pearl's bed,

"Aren't you-"

Peridot was promptly interrupted by Garnet, who was already picking Lapis up "I'll do it."

"OH MY STARS WAIT!" Peridot tried to get to them, then she remembered she never had a foot and she smashed her face into the floor. Garnet left Lapis alone and picked Peridot back up.  
Lapis sighed, 'The tough life of the only one currently able to walk'.  
"Listen here you clod!" Peridot pointed a finger into Garnets face. "Lapis is connected to countless drips, a heart monitor and an oxygen mask! (despite not currently using it) You can't just pick her up!"

"I'll call the nurse."

"Lapis isn't meant to be up and about! Don't you remember her back?"

"What about your leg Peri?" Amethyst grinned, "You aren't meant to move either!" Peridot gritted her teeth at this,

"GAH! Fine! Hook me up to her heart monitor so that the doctor doesn't notice."

Lapis grinned as Peridot was carried to her bed and hooked into the machine, when Lapis removed the wires she marvelled at Peridots genius.

"Don't leave me strapped in here for too long, you're coming back!" Peridot told her and Lapis nodded, taking the IV drip with her as Garnet carried her to the tall girl in midst of a nightmare.

Lapis was put down onto the bed and then left alone with Pearl. She had a bandage covering the cut on her face and looked like an Egyptian mummy with the amount of the fabric wrapped around her body.  
Lapis smiled and brushed her cheek softly, she grumbled slightly before opening her tired eyes. Her surprise and confusion then transformed into a soft smile.  
"You always wake me up, don't you?" Pearl touched her hand gently with bandaged fingertips.

Lapis brought her hand up and softly kissed her bandaged fingers. "Always…" she smiled, "you always scare me, don't you?"

"I try not to." Pearl replied, her voice weak but she gave her a tender look. It made Lapis's heart melt.

"ARE YOU DONE YET?!" Lapis heard Peridot yelp from her bed but she ignored her completely.

"What happens now?" She asked the tall injured girl,

"Now?" Pearl sighed with a smile, "I don't know... But at least we're here. Together."

Lapis nodded, "Together."


	16. Chapter 16 - Steven

Dancing ever so gracefully across the water, they parted and then reunited. Pearl elegantly dipped Lapis and then brought her back up for a spin, she kissed the inside of her wrist and hugged closely. Then they kissed, it was passionate and comforting, her lips where deliciously soft and she nibbled on her bottom lip.  
Lapis giggled and knocked her over onto a bed and...

—

Pearl sighed as she woke up. 'So close…' She blushed at the thought and shook her head. 'Are we even ready? We barely started kissing!' Pearl would have slapped herself there and then 'What am I thinking?! We haven't even been together that long!  
Looking beside her, she found Lapis facing away from her. The back that was once covered with so many bandages was open and only a faint scar remained, Pearl blushed and softly smiled, she wrapped her arms around her and kissed the back of her neck, trailing small kisses down to her scar and then back up. Lapis mumbled something and turned around.  
"You're awake?" Pearl hummed, kissing her forehead,

"You were shuffling about a lot… Bad dream?" Lapis smiled sleepily and looked up,

Pearl blushed, a little too suspiciously,

"Oh, good dream?" Lapis grinned and kissed her cheeks, "care to share?"

"We were dancing…" Pearl blushed even harder, "n-nothing else…"  
Lapis gave her a knowing grin and kissed the faint scar on her nose.

It was something that made Pearl insecure, 'What would people think? Children will be frightened of me!' She remembered telling Lapis, but with every complaint she received a peck on the bridge of her nose. She stopped only when her face was flushed red and Lapis brightly told her, 'I like it, and if it means kissing it until you realise that, then I will do it forever.' She really was something else.

"W-we should really get going- mmf!" Pearl tried but was met by another kiss that was instead aimed at the lips, "Lapis!"

"Okay, okay," the shorter girl sat up, giving Pearl enough space to manoeuvre off the bed and change clothes. She was only vaguely aware of Lapis putting on her dress, despite the year that went by together she still blushed at the sight.

"You're beautiful," Pearl stated as casually as she could,

"You're sappy," Lapis replied,

As they walked from Lapis's room in Peridots house to the living room, Pearl thought back to when they left the hospital. It definitely was much cleaner and tidier, most of Peridots belongings were moved into her room and Lapis began to paint with the abandoned equipment. Pearl smiled when they past a painted picture of the sea, Lapis definitely had some artistic talent and made the artworks almost lifelike. It made her remember when Lapis first showed her it, she was so happy.  
Then her mind wandered and Pearl remembered that it happened the day before she had to leave and go back to the shared apartment in the city, 'Lapis was so sad, it was like losing each other all over again...' Pearl held Lapis's hand a little tighter. '...But she understood why I had to leave.' a small smiled played upon her lips.

She wasn't gone for long, Pearl visited whenever she could and sometimes secretly stayed the night just to hold her hand and cuddle like they always did. The small kisses they shared when alone were only a recent development now that Pearl thought about it. Pearl would think that it was rather silly that at one point they were scared to kiss each other, back then a kiss was as traumatic as a gunshot or a wound... It reminded them that the only time they kissed something bad happened.

Pearl brought up Lapis' hand and kissed her knuckles, the shorter girl smiled and squeezed her hand tighter. The dancer also smiled. It made her forget the times when Lapis would flinch or tense when they made any sort of physical contact.

When they reached the living room, Pearl frowned at who her eyes landed on. A small figure sitting unnaturally quietly on the couch.  
"Amethyst," She narrowed her eyes,

"Oh hey P!" The short girl replied, "I uh, came early?" she blushed a little,

"Peridot?" Lapis grinned and Pearl couldn't help but join in,

"You two are girlfriends, so I'm not surprised..."

"Pearl, you used to do the same thing all the time." Lapis smirked and at that she lightly blushed,

"Oh I remember…" Amethyst grinned slyly, "what I want to know is if she finally got you-"

"ANYWAY!" Pearl loudly cleared her throat, "the house is supposed to be finished today."

An unnatural silence filled the room.

"I still don't like that it's in **that** place." Amethyst stood up off the couch and stretched, "especially when Steven is going to live there with us."

Pearl blinked and frowned, "What are you on about?" Amethyst looked at her with surprise, she crossed her arms as if anticipating a lecturing. "The house being built is no-where near **that** place! I wouldn't allow it!" then with a grin she added, "also the safety officers judged it a **hazardous area**. With the apparent 'Earthquake' and everything."

"But it's still at the cliff," Amethyst said,

"On the other side!" Pearl huffed, "It faces towards that donut shop."

Amethyst's eyes lit up 'I knew that would do it.' "Oh then I'm totally down for it!" she grinned almost predictively, It was one of her favourite foods after all.

"I've been meaning to ask..." Lapis looked at them with her classic head tilt. "But how did you explain what happened to Opal? Did she know about what you are?"

All eyes were on Pearl,

"W-what?"

"Listen P. I don't know anything about this... Unlike you and Garnet, I never remembered anything." The pudgy girl said, 'That's right... She never remembered...' But Pearl did. It was good that Amethyst was still oblivious to what happened, she already suffers bad nightmares and thinking back to what happened, the trauma... It would be too much for her... It almost was a long time ago.

"Opal... Doesn't know anything..." Pearl replied slowly, "It was an earthquake, that's all she needs to know." She shuffled about uncomfortably for a bit. She never liked the fact that everyone apart from her and Garnet has forgotten the past, it was sad and in a way frustrating. Wanting to get away from the awkwardness, Pearl went into the kitchen and began making coffee. 'Otherwise known as my ticket to Lapis' Pearl relaxed.  
Back when Pearl would sneak in, Peridot grew increasingly irritated at her 'breach of security' it was ironic in a way. But to stay on the short girl's good side, Pearl made her coffee every morning when she stayed. It was almost strange to remember how aggressive she was when she first met Peridot.

A few minutes later some thudding and clicking was heard, a very tired Peridot came down from her 'hibernation' of a sleep and hugged Amethyst. She had messy hair and her sleepwear displayed her prosthetic proudly, why she would choose green of all colours Pearl would never know. Amethyst gave Peridot a small kiss on the cheek.  
"Good morning," She yawned,

"It's the afternoon…" Pearl replied, giving her a pre-prepared coffee.

"Thanks…" Peridot rubbed her eyes again, "I'm gonna miss your coffee…"

"I can give you the recipe." Pearl laughed,

"No thanks." She took a sip and almost instantaneously brightened up.

"It's not like Pearl's not gonna visit anymore," Amethyst began, "In fact, I think she can make you coffee every morning now!"

"Don't. Tempt. Her." Lapis warned, if anyone knew what Peridot was like to live with it definitely had to be Lapis. Pearl wasn't jealous of her relationship with Peridot, not like when it was with Rose and Greg that is... But sometimes Pearl couldn't help but put an arm around Lapis' shoulders or hold her hand. She wasn't the only one to do this as Amethyst would always show affection to Peridot, 'but I think it's to embarrass Peridot more than anything.'

Pearl slowly turned to Amethyst, "We should go…"

"Are you sure you're ready? Steven's going to be there and I know that-"

"I know." Pearl interrupted her, "We're going to living there with him after all."

When they seen the new house for the first time, they gasped at how big it was. In comparison to the other houses it was only slightly bigger, but it was a large house in any standard.  
"H-how? How did Greg afford this? I mean, we helped but I don't think that my earnings helped at all!" Pearl stared at it.

"Look! There's his van!" Amethyst pointed to the brightly coloured van sitting by the garage. "Let's go inside!" She grabbed Peridots hand.

Pearl let Amethyst and Peridot run ahead as she walked to the front door at a leisurely pace,  
"You never met Greg haven't you?" Pearl took Lapis's hand, who had tagged along to help the move in.

"No, I've only heard about him." Lapis replied,

"Well, I may have not gotten on well with him. But he's a good father to Steven and generally a nice guy, that's what matters." Pearl sighed.

When they reached the front door that Amethyst left open, the first thing that they heard was the sound of a toddlers laughter and the eerily similar design to the previous house she stayed in. Pearl braced herself and walked in slowly, all the eyes in the room landed on her including that of the child's. She felt Lapis reassuring squeeze her hand before letting go.  
"Hey Pearl!" Greg smiled awkwardly, "long time no see?"

She nodded, "yes, definitely." she continued to look around curiously, the house did look like the 'nightmare house' as Peridot called it. But it was much more open and warmer, the back of the house had a small living-room in place of the dark blankness of the other house and there was no basement to be seen. There were also some doors that seemed to go into small bedrooms and a staircase to an open second level that also seemed to have some rooms. All of this was seen from the front door.

"I guess you never found out… I got a lot of money from my old music career… So uh…" Greg blushed a little as Pearl was gawking at the house,

"He's filthy rich." Garnet stated,

"You really helped with the construction! All of you did!" Greg quickly added, "The house has everything we need because of it!"

"Well… Then we were glad to help!" Pearl smiled back at him, they went awkwardly silent until a small voice made Pearl freeze.

"Who's that?" The little boy pointed at her and looked up to Greg,

"That's Pearl!" Greg grinned, "She's family."

He gasped adorably "Aunty!" The boys eyes shone, "Aunty Pearl!" he smiled and held his hands out excitingly,

"Steven, we're not related!" Greg blushed a little,

"Pearl!" The child corrected himself with a grin.

Pearls hands shook a little, but with some encouraging nods, she picked the little boy up and he hugged her. She smiled widely and some tears fell from her eyes.  
She felt Steven move slightly in her arms and seen him smile at Lapis, who smiled back.

"He's adorable," Pearl wiped her eyes carefully, Steven was making silly faces at Lapis and she was playing along contentedly. "I was wrong to ignore him... and you Greg-"

"It's fine! Really!" Greg raised his arms passively in attempt to calm her down, "you met him now, and that's what matters."

They shared another smile.

"I think that you two will be very attached in the upcoming years." Garnet shifted her shades,

"Is that a thought? Or a prediction?" Pearl smiled,

"We'll have to see..." Garnet smiled back at her mysteriously.

"That reminds me..." Pearl mumbled, "Garnet, did you ever find Ruby and Sapphire?"

The police woman's face went bright, she gained a wide grin. "Yep." She pulled out her phone and tapped a few things before showing her the screen. "Take a look."

It was a picture of Garnet with two shorter women beside her, Pearl smiled at the nostalgia. They were exactly how she remembered them. Garnet had her arms around them and hugged them close with a big smile, Ruby was the one taking the photo awkwardly with one hand, but the resulting picture turned out perfectly in Pearls eyes.  
In the background of one of the photos Garnet showed her, Pearl seen a small framed picture of Garnet, it was a picture of her in full uniform the day she became a police officer.  
"You always see the small details in things." Garnet sighed with a smile, "I never knew them, but they knew about me... They just couldn't forget me... When they seen me knocking on their door they almost cried because they knew I didn't remember them... But everything is fine now, I have parents in the city and I would never have known about them if I didn't go into that basement."

Pearl laughed breathlessly, "you always were optimistic when you wanted to be..."

She watched Garnet put a hand onto her shoulder, a sign that what she was going to say next was important. Pearl glanced down to the child in her arms, Steven was watching them happily and would briefly look back to Lapis and laugh. She looked back to Garnet.  
"I'm going to need your help Pearl." She began, "Lots of people out there are also like me... Like you... They need help finding people and there are some that are like Lapis or Peridot... I need your help in finding them..." Pearl could tell that she was choosing her words carefully as Greg was chatting contentedly with Amethyst behind them, moving boxes into the living-room.

"You know that you're better than me... You can see the future."

"I'm just lucky Pearl. I'm good, but not that good." Garnet pulled down her shades and winked, "I'm going to need someone with an eye for detail and is very talented... Like-"

"Me?" Peridot jumped into the conversation.

Pearl could see Amethyst laughing and shaking her head in that background. Greg was also smiling now with a box in his hands, it was so sudden that even he was distracted from his work.

"Well..." Garnet shrugged, "I guess both of you can handle it."

Pearl grinned and looked down at Peridot, "I guess that makes us partners. Let's rescue as many as we can."

Peridot grinned back and Amethyst walked up towards them. "Just look at our two nerds Lapis, saving people like it's no ones business."

"Makes me fall in love all over again." Pearl blushed at that. Lapis then laughed and then blew a raspberry at Steven, "but I don't know... This little guy is really charming!" Steven laughed at that.

Pearl and Steven spent most of the day together and were almost inseparable.  
That is until Steven had fallen asleep in her hold as she spoke with the others. Gently she put Steven in the baby bed that Greg brought in, she found it ironic, that for someone she didn't want to see, she can't bare to let them go...

It reminded her of Lapis in a way...

"He's too cute." Lapis brushed Steven's cheek lightly, "I'm getting distracted…"

"So am I…" Pearl brushed Lapis's cheek and kissed her, she felt the girl hold her breath and smile. Lapis breathed out when they parted.

"You still take my breath away." Lapis blushed,

"I know."

Pearl sighed and glanced at the boxes of things outside, most of it was all Amethysts junk but someone has to help move.

"Has he fallen asleep yet?" Greg asked as he put down a box,

Pearl nodded, "soundly." She added a smile,

Greg smiled back, "Well, I hope it stays that way over night… He really is a handful, like uh…" He paused,

"Yes, definitely like Rose." Pearl gave him a small smile, she felt Lapis holding her hand reassuringly, "She would be proud of all you've done Greg."

The man blushed lightly at this, "well uh… That's nice to know… But I think she would be proud of all of us."

Pearl smiled at that and picked up the box he put down. "So… Where does this box go?"

—

It was late in the evening and Steven was already put to bed again by Greg. 'Definitely a handful.'  
Then one by one everyone disappeared mysteriously… Into their rooms. They were all tired from the move, especially Peridot and Amethyst 'Didn't want to say that I told you so... But I told you so...' Pearl remembered the exchange with Amethyst that was bitterly looking at her 'I hate that look you get.' Amethyst replied and Pearl had grinned at her even more.

Lapis stayed with Pearl for the night and walked into her room. It was airy and had the view of the sea from the window.  
Most things that Pearl could recover from the incident was already in the room, but a lot of things, such as the disk of documents, were destroyed. To everyones relief.

The bed was also much larger for once, although Pearl couldn't tell if that was a good or bad thing. She turned to Lapis who had just shut the curtains and hugged her.  
"You done so well today…" She felt Lapis softly pet her hair and tickle the back of her neck, with a teasing kiss to the skin under the ear, she whispered provocatively. "Let's do something different…" But to Pearl's disappointment she quickly pulled away, "That is if you -mmf!"  
Pearl kissed her deeply and nibbled her bottom lip before pulling away, a strange thought overcame her.

"Would you care for a dance?" Pearl smiled,

Lapis had a dumbfounded expression but chuckled soon after, "I would love a dance."

It wasn't difficult to dance in the rather large room, they slid by furniture and flowed smoothly across the floor. Pearl would bring Lapis close and then let her go again as they continued their dance. They had large smiles and began to leave kisses each rotation they completed.  
Once again Pearl brought her close, once again dipped her and once again brought her back with a small kiss to the wrist. Once again she was toppled over onto a bed with intent.

Once again, she could start over.


End file.
